POLITICS AND PROPERTY 



OR 



PHRONOCRACY 



A COMPROMISE BETWEEN 
DEMOCRACY AND PLUTOCRACY 



/ 



SLACK WORTHINGTON 




N^COPYRIGhT^V 



I 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 



LONDON 

27 KING WILLIAM ST., STRAND 



®^e l^nitkerbochrr |)ress 
1891 



///s/7/7 

,W 13 



Copyright, 1891 

BY 

SLACK WORTHINGTON 



^be Iknicfeerbocfeer press, mew Iforfc 

Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by 
G. P. Putnam's Sons 



PREFACE. 



Discontent and strife, to a greater or less extent, have 
always existed in the world and doubtless always will 
exist. It is believed by many that the higher the degree 
of intellectual development in mankind as a class, the 
greater this discontent, for the reason that objectionable 
conditions can be more keenly appreciated. Notwith- 
standing this ever-existing unrest, whether aggravated or 
assuaged by intellectual development, the causes which 
produce it are as essentially a part of the great whole, — 
of the earth and its operations, — as are man's members a 
part of his physical being ; and these causes can never 
be entirely annulled, hence their effects must, in a 
measure, always exist. 

It is claimed in the following pages that poverty can 
never be eradicated from society any more effectually 
than disease can be absolutely prevented in the human 
body ; but since the latter can be relieved by the proper 
application of scientific remedies, so likewise can the 
former be ameliorated by the timely enactment of intel- 
ligent laws. The object of this work is to urge strenuous 
opposition to both plutocracy on the one hand, and 
socialistic tendencies of all kinds on the other, and 
advocate a reasonable middle or conservative position 
between the two, which for convenience is termed 
" Phronocracy," which signifies the rule of reason, 
prudence, and understanding. 

iii 



IV PREFACE. ' 

Heretofore writers opposing the alarming concentra- 
tion of wealth into the hands of the few have urged 
against these accumulations conditions that are too vio- 
lent, and for poverty systems of relief that are utterly 
impracticable. 

This work seeks to avoid both these extremes by 
acknowledging that the property rights of men shall, 
to a reasonable extent, be fully recognized and sedu- 
lously protected, but that the masses have grievances 
that must not be ignored. Nothing is proposed that is 
to the slightest extent visionary, impracticable, or revo- 
lutionary, but, on the contrary, only measures are recom- 
mended that can be adopted by law within the bounds of 
prudence, reason, and justice. It also advocates the 
curtailment of the elective franchise by the only proper 
and feasible manner possible, viz. : by property and 
educational qualification. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Man : his original state ; his advance toward civilization ; his 
acquisitiveness — Individual property : man's right to same 
— Government : its origin and progress — Popular strife and 
energy — Diversification of civilized wants — Trade and ex- 
change : compromise between wealth and poverty — Phro- 
nocracy : its meaning and purpose ..... I 

CHAPTER II. 

Existing social conditions objectionable — excessive accumulations 
dangerous — Unearned increment : man's right to same in 
moderation — Free trade and protection : America's progress 
not attributable to either — Timidity of tariff-reform free- 
traders — The Wall policy and World policy — The American 
farmers' illogical position — Baneful paternalism . . .23 

CHAPTER III. 

Necessity for relief from monopoly — Government control of 
monopolistic enterprises: objections thereto — Inefficiency 
of most governmental management — Governmental control 
of all business — Greater objection thereto and the impracti- 
cability thereof — Differences in human excellence must be 
recognized — Support government from excessive individual 
accumulations — Evil effects of certain restrictive legislation 
— Socialistic schools ........ 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

Single or land tax considered : sincerity of its advocates — " The 
world belongs in usufruct to the people," correct in the 
abstract — Original possession : how acquired — Right of 
original possession — Land, the product of labor — Impracti- 



VI CONTENTS. 

FAGB 

cability of "uninterrupted access to natural opportunity" — 
Tax to full rental value tantamount to confiscation, and 
less fails of the object sought — Not justified by simplicity ; 
generally impracticable and void of good effect — Relief 
only secured by laws oppressing the favored and favoring 
the oppressed ......... 5q 

CHAPTER V. 

Phronocracy : what is it? — Other efforts at reform impracticable 
— Cumulative taxation should be adopted — Monopolistic 
enterprises must be popularly owned — Taxation on individ- 
ual excesses just and proper — Rate always one cent per each 
thousand dollars cumulative — Uselessness of excessive wealth 
and folly of universal suffrage ; amendment curtailing both 
— Rate to apply to individuals only, not to corporations — 
Desirableness of more popular ownership of enterprises and 
less popular participation in government . . . .go 

CHAPTER VI. 

Practical application of the cumulative tax — Supports government 
in proportion to man's ability — And no property or no 
knowledge, no vote — Takes burden off of the weak and 
puts it on the strong — Equity and efficiency of assessment 
— Limits all individual estates to about four million — Tax 
collectors in congressional districts : their method of assess- 
ment — Necessity of not limiting corporations — "Watering" 
stock not specially objectionable, but division of ownership 
vital ...... 



117 



CHAPTER VII. 



Probable result of the practical application of the cumulative 
tax — Distributes corporate and other ownership to a maxi- 
mum limit of about four million to one individual — More 
practical and simple than income tax — Requirements of the 
federal government fully met — More equitable distribution 
assured — Average levy on all property only fifty cents per 
hundred — Evasion impossible — Least burdensome and most 
certain- and "just of all taxation — Greater distribution useless 
and hurtful— The only true " protective system " . . 142 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

How it may be accomplished — One-hundred millionaires fatal to 
small investors — But great corporations, if owned by many, 
cause no harm — Great concentration of wealth necessary to 
promote enterprise — Power of Congress to impose the cumu- 
lative tax — No great difference between existing parties 
affecting fundamental principles involved — Northwestern 
Granger States and the solid South should join hands — Will 
settle the negro question in the South — Cumulative tax will 
lighten the burden on the South and West, and qualified 
suffrage will increase their proportionate vote and power — 
Will decrease country vote less than city vote — Granger 
States begin to see the folly of protection and value of 
cumulative taxation and qualified suffrage — Over four 
million farm owners in 1890, three fourths of whom may 
support the proposition — This added to conservative city 
vote is sufficient for success — States that first may support it 
— Others that may follow . . . . . . .164 

CHAPTER IX. 

Suffrage : its functions and uses — Original governmental systems 
absolute, despotic, and void of suffrage — Suffrage the result 
of opposition to divine right to rule — A certain degree of 
excellence necessary — Curtailment the only effectual ballot 
reform — Knock out both the one-hundred millionaire and 
the ward "worker" — Female suffrage: never should be 
granted, and reasons why not — Woman's sphere and duty : 
never materially altered ; marriage — Opinions regarding 
same — Proposition that it should be abolished and women 
made pensioners on society . . . . . .186 

CHAPTER X. 

Effects of true ballot reform — Suppresses the Southern negro and 
the Northern loafer — Election of collectors and postmasters 
would relieve the President and diminish patronage — Col- 
lectors' voting lists : could not be forged — How voting 
would be done— Record absolutely correct, and votes would 
be checked by postmasters' lists — No need of large property 
qualification ; purity guaranteed without ; would increase 



V1U CONTENTS. 



the government's stability — Impossible to buy votes — 
Qualified suffrage better than know-nothingism ; will cause 
diversified representation ....... 206 

CHAPTER XI. 

Trade, money, work, and wages — Convict labor no great harm to 
honest labor — Corporal punishment should be resumed for 
small crimes — Child labor — Eight-hour agitation — Scientific 
invention no obstacle to labor — Causes of increased urban 
population — Circulating medium : money ; gold coin the 
best — Qualities the circulating medium should possess — 
Silver money, iron money — Government "fiat" money as 
good as the government's sovereignty — Must be redeemable 
in something representing the value of labor — Increased 
quantity not beneficial — Purchases forced on the govern- 
ment wrong, and should be stopped — Gold, and gold only, 
to be adopted ; no double standard — Banks and banking — 
National banks continued ....... 223 

CHAPTER XII. 

Immigration and foreign proprietorship — Sentiment against im- 
migration — Workingmen favor free trade, but oppose immi- 
gration — Error of the belief — Self-sustaining men a benefit 
— Care of poor families in infancy — No danger from over- 
population — If so, destroy the beasts first — Man-labor and 
brute-labor — Increased population adds to labor demand — 
Foreign purchaser a benefit to all — Opposing legislation 
reduces property values — Ireland an illustration . . . 252 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Desirableness and result of territorial annexation — Value to the 
countries themselves greater than to the States— Some op- 
position to extending the boundaries — More land thought 
by some to be useless — Final preference of all for one 
flag over all — Detail of the discussion regarding annexation 
— Tropical lands needed by the States — Better acquire 
land suitable to tropical products than to produce them 
by taxation and bounties — North America adapted to one 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

government over the whole continent — Likewise tend to 
make customs, language, and people alike — Local home-rule 
vital — Possibility of division in North America if local rule 
is molested ......... 268 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Governments in general — Advance in civilization liberalizes all 
governments — Absolute monarchy and limited monarchy — 
A democracy and a republic denned — 'America a republic, 
not a democracy — Strict construction of federal power essen- 
tial — Republics presuppose intelligence — Excessive democ- 
racy is akin to socialism — No federal aid or supervision of 
schools — Opposition to all kinds of paternalism — Frequent 
elections continued save as to judges — Local government 
essential in all progressive states and for all enlightened 
people 286 

CHAPTER XV. 

Recapitulation and general observations — Some individual estates 
too great for computation ; illustration of the uselessness of 
same ; equal to an ordinary salary for 400,000 years — No 
plan save regulating the extremes is practicable or just — 
Irksome duties must be performed — Increased compensation 
not an offset — Differences in men must be recognized — 
Cumulative taxation and suffrage qualification the essential 
features of Phronocracy — The plan not complicated — The 
South, the ruralists of the North, and conservative city 
residents sufficient for success — Reasonable reward for 
energy and excellence — Nothing beyond — Concluding para- 
graphs and generalization ....... 308 



PHRONOCRATIC PRECEPTS. 
Aphorisms and Epigrams 331 



DIAGRAM I. 

ILLUSTRATING THE AVERAGE BURDEN OF TAXATION IN PROPORTION 
TO PROPERTY UNDER THE PRESENT SYSTEM. 

Estates. 



200 


Million 


I50 


1 i 


IOO 


1 < 


75 


i i 


50 


i i 


25 


i i 


20 


i i 


15 


" 


10 


* i 


5 


1 ' 


4 


' ' 


3 


* * 


2 


' ' 


1 


' ' 


500 


Thousand 


IOO 


< < 


75 


1 1 


5Q 


' ' 


25 


i c 


20 


" 


15 


1 ' 


10 


" 


5 


" 


1 


' ' 




By the closest obtainable data it is found that very large estates do 
not, on the average, pay tax on more than one third their value, and 
that small estates are usually assessed in full, or pay three times as 
much in proportion as large estates. 



XI 



DIAGRAM II. 



ILLUSTRATING THE EXACT RATIO OF TAX BURDEN TO PROPERTY 

UNDER THE 

PHRONOCRATIC CUMULATIVE SYSTEM. 



Estates. 


y 






z 


5 


xViinion 








4 


" 








3 

2 
I 

9OO 
800 


.Thousand 

1 1 




\ X / 




700 
600 


1 1 




\ H / 




500 


1 ' 




\ / 




4OO 


' ' 




\ / 




300 


* * 




\ / 




200 


1 4 




v 




IOO 






A 




80 


" 










60 


t i 










40 


1 1 










20 


" 










IO 


" 










9 

8 


',< 










7 
6 


< 1 










5 


" 










4 


1 ' 










3 


' ' 










2 


' ' 










1 


' ' 











X is supposed to be one-fiftieth of YZ. 

The burden on a five-million estate is shown to be just fifty times 
as great per M. as on a one-hundred-thousand estate, and on smaller 
estates the burden is so light as to be inappreciable on the above 
scale. 



DIAGRAM III. 

ILLUSTRATING THE BURDEN OF PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 



Rich 








Protected 




/ Tax \ 




Classes 




/ Burden \ 




Poor 








Non- 




Tax 




Protected 




Burden 


\ 


Laboring 






\ 


Masses 


/ 




' \ 







DIAGRAM IV. 

ILLUSTRATING THE RELATIVE BURDEN OF U. S. REVENUE UNDER 
PHRONOCRATIC CUMULATIVE TAXATION. 



Rich 


\ 




Tax Burden / 


Classes 




\ 


/ 


Middle 






N^ Tax / 
^v Burden / 


Classes 








Poor 








>-< 
> 


Laboring 






X 

a 
H 

o 




Masses 











POLITICS AND PROPERTY; 
PHRONOCRACY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Man : his original state ; his advance toward civilization ; his acquis- 
itiveness — Individual property : man's right to same — Govern- 
ment : its origin and progress — Popular strife and energy — 
Diversification of civilized wants — Trade and exchange : com- 
promise between wealth and poverty — Phronocracy : its meaning 
and purpose. 

It is evident to mankind in general, that the earth on 
which we reside — an infinitesimal portion of the material 
universe — exists. Whence it cometh or whither it goeth 
is beyond the ken even of the most profound and erudite 
of men. It is likewise apparent to the same general class 
that the animal called the human being exists on the sur- 
face of the earth ; but whence he cometh or whither he 
goeth is likewise veiled in mystery and shrouded in dark- 
ness. It is most reasonable to conclude that man began 
his existence within the tropics, whether on the Eastern 
or Western hemisphere, or whether at the date of his be- 
ginning the landed portion of the earth was co-extensive 
and conterminous is unknown and inconsequential. It 
is likewise evident that the primordial man existed in 
a state or condition which, as compared with the en- 
vironments of what is properly denominated modern 
civilization, was absolutely barbaric. As time passed 



2 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

he progressed ; or, in other words, he began to exert his 
inherent power upon the existing inanimate matter that 
surrounded him ; and to use his force to such an extent 
as gratified his inclinations in the destruction and utili- 
zation of co-existing animate objects within the scope of 
his ordinary powers for purposes best suited to his wishes 
and wants. He ran the lion into his lair, he pursued the 
antelope into the jungles of the forest, he caught the 
fishes of the brooks and estuaries, he multiplied his own 
species, and as the population became more numerous, 
individuals thereof began to travel the surface of the 
earth, and in rudely constructed boats to navigate the 
landed confines of the unknown seas. Later, when 
entering into lands and climes in which the rigors of the 
weather demanded other and altered appliances from 
those required for ordinary comfort in the sun-lit regions 
of his primitive abodes, he began to clothe himself in the 
skins of the inferior animals that he subjugated and de- 
stroyed, and to burrow holes in the ground for the pur- 
pose of constructing rude habitations, and to fell trees 
with which to construct primitive huts for shelter from 
the uncongenial and discomforting winds of his unac- 
customed country. Finally, advancing into a state or 
condition from the standpoint of the present, properly 
demonstrated progress, he began to comprehend that he 
possessed, and proceeded to exercise, supreme dominion 
over things animate and inanimate around him. Com- 
measurably with his progress, or rather with his approach 
to that state or condition that most fittingly represents 
our present civilized life, there began to be displayed 
natural acquisitiveness prompted by a realizing sense of 
the absolute necessity for provision against want. He 
was able to fully comprehend that a hole in the ground 
was a more comfortable abode than the open landscape, 



PHRONOCRACY 3 

and, later, that a rudely constructed log-hut was more 
suitable to his wants than a hole in the ground ; also, 
that the skin of a bear, a weasel, or a mink, could be so 
constructed as to be of much value in insuring that com- 
fort which he desired and that contentment which he 
sought ; hence, he naturally began to possess himself of 
all of these that he could secure, and to use them at 
once, or to secrete them for the future. Naturally, there- 
fore, the possession of individual property followed 
closely behind the approach of man to his present condi- 
tion, and as civilization advanced the varieties and diver- 
sification of individual possessions multiplied. The furs 
of the animals he captured, the fish he caught, and the 
the trees he felled were naturally and rightfully the prop- 
erty of the man who secured them, and he cherished a 
natural unwillingness to divide with another. They were 
the fruit of his toil ; and, since they possessed originally 
no value, he acquired title by the effort expended in re- 
prisal, and he had an unquestioned right to exert that 
effort ; and, having so done, would not now willingly be- 
come dispossessed without adequate compensation. 

Having, therefore, progressed until individual property 
became an important element in human existence, it be- 
came necessary to institute some means of protection 
against attacks for the possession of that property upon 
the part of those of his fellow-men who possessed more 
dishonesty and less industry than himself. It soon became 
apparent that all men were not equal either in size or intui- 
tions ; neither had they the same identical desires. They 
differed from each other as radically, though originally 
perhaps not more so, than the trees of the forest, and 
less so, doubtless, than the fishes of the sea. Why some 
grew to be stronger than others, or why some could com- 
bat successfully with the most ferocious beast and pos- 



4 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

sess himself of its skin, if he desired it for clothing, or of 
its meat, if he wished it for food ; and why others could 
not, or at* least were less forcible in this quality than the 
most favored, was and still is unknown : it is the natural 
condition, that is all. 

Continuing to advance nearer to the condition to 
which civilization has attained, that faculty of the human 
being called intelligence began to assume a wider scope 
and more comprehensive range. 

Hitherto, scarcely mindful of the energies and forces 
of nature, he now began to realize that the wind would 
blow, that the lightning would flash, that the thunder 
would roar, that the sea would toss, that the seasons 
would change, and that Nature would wear continuously 
an altered aspect, and be subjected to changed con- 
ditions that he could not fathom or in any sense 
control ; hence he began to conclude that there must be 
some power that did control all these, that could exer- 
cise dominion over same, and so he ascribed to the sea 
its god, to the north wind its god, to the forces of Nature, 
or, in other words, to the agencies around him, and to 
personal attributes inherent in his kind and in things in 
general, their god or controller — hence, doubtless, the 
idea of a Supreme Being. Since the powers ascribed to 
the gods were insufficient to regulate and control indi- 
vidual passions, to insure peaceable possession of in- 
dividual property, to protect the weak against the strong, 
or to regulate the ordinary affairs of life, there began to 
be established schemes and systems of government. At 
first the most forcible of a certain tribe or community 
would assert, and, by his physical and mental power, 
maintain, a supremacy over the balance of his fellow-men ; 
which, by reason of the inherent predisposition of men, 
caused by their observation of natural forces, to look to 



PHRONOCRACY 5 

a power higher than themselves, crystallized into what 
was considered a right to rule. The chief seemed greater 
than the masses ; hence he must be nearer to the power 
that caused the winds to blow, the sea to toss, and the 
elements to be in action. The desire for gain and for 
the manifestations of individual prowess would cause 
strife and contention between the chiefs of various 
tribes, until the strongest would subjugate the weakest, 
resulting in greater extensions of the rule of the success- 
ful individual ; and thus, as time rolled on, states and 
nations were builded up by the subjugation and absorp- 
tion of smaller tribes and communities ; and, as their 
chieftains and rulers attained glory and renown, they 
were thought to be endowed with supernatural attain- 
ments consequent upon the belief that otherwise they 
could not so successfully, if at all, have achieved their 
greatness and power ; hence, perhaps, the idea of the 
"Divine appointment of the King." The ruler, once 
established in his kingly state, whether by force or 
otherwise, succession had to be provided for, and was, 
in earlier days in most cases, determined by force ; but 
more recently and in some parts of the world is in this 
day actually regulated by inheritance, as if any man 
could inherit, possess, or transmit the right to rule over 
his fellow-men. When, in 1776, the American colonists 
of King George III. conceived the idea that " all just 
power came from the consent of the governed," a great 
stride was made in the progress of the world. It was a 
radical departure from the idea of " Divine right," and 
hence more in keeping with progressive thought. 

The attainment by man to that state of civilized life 
which suggested the advisability of or necessity for any 
system of government, was coeval with the development 
of man's acquisitiveness and the possession of individual 



O POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

property. In other words, the idea of government was 
suggested, and the institution in its most primitive form 
was established chiefly for the purpose of protection to 
property and life ; and the proper functions of govern- 
ment are to this day fully exercised, when protection to 
life and property have been secured and peaceful and 
uninterrupted possession thereof established and main- 
tained. The numerous and varied manifestations and 
the unwarranted and non-essential exercise of govern- 
mental power can and should be limited to these simple 
agencies. Admitting, therefore, what appears to be 
self-evident, that the human being is so constituted 
that, apace with that progress which he has manifestly 
attained, he must have wants, and that his wants must 
prompt acquisitiveness, and that this attribute of his 
nature prompts accumulation, it is obvious that individ- 
ual property is as much a natural condition as individual 
life ; hence that property, to the extent that its aggregate 
is reasonable and can be available to its possessor, should 
be held or possessed by him in uninterrupted enjoyment. 
To a certain extent, man in the abstract has a natural 
right to possess the earth and its belongings ; and, since 
all men are constituted, in the main, of the same kind of 
matter, and possess, to a greater or less extent, the same 
ability to enjoy pleasure, comfort, and ease, and have 
the same general disinclination to endure pain, discom- 
fort, and toil, he should possess it ; yet it is no more 
possible to institute that condition in society which will 
render the equal possession of property possible, than it 
is possible to make all trees absorb from the earth and 
air the same amount of moisture, or cause all plants and 
animals to grow to the same uniform size — such is not 
the natural condition, that is all. The tree appears to 
have a natural right to that part of the soil from which 



PHRONOCRACY 7 

its roots take nourishment, and to that share of space 
over which its branches ramify ; and so, in the enjoy- 
ment of that natural right, does it accreate and grow, 
bear its fruit, its seed, and carry out its apparent purpose 
and mission on earth, unless by the interference of some 
stronger power, as a cyclone or a storm — both as natural 
a consequence as the existence of the tree itself, — it 
is uprooted or destroyed, or unless, by the hand of man 
or by the teeth of a beaver or otherwise, it is hewn down 
and converted into something suitable for use. The 
stronger, whenever suitable to its wishes or purposes, 
will destroy the weaker ; the fittest, all things considered, 
will survive. 

Society, from the time of early civilization, has, to a 
certain extent, acknowledged man's right to live, to 
maintenances from the resources of the earth ; and, 
in conformity with the acknowledgment of that right, 
has established and supported houses for the maimed, 
the decrepit, and, furthermore, for the poor. It has 
maintained hospitals for the sick, it has supported 
public parks and public roads — furthermore, it has 
supported public schools — in fact, it has in many cases 
recognized fully the agrarian and socialistic principle. 
To have extended this indulgence further — that is, to 
have opened all such recognized institutions to all who 
wished to become inmates — would be to place a premium 
on idleness, and thus paralyze the world's affairs. 

The natural inclinations of men to possess and retain 
property has never been denied. The assertions of a 
few misanthropic agitators that, though natural, it should 
never be allowed ; that all the world's effects should be 
considered common property has never gained much 
support, because such views are not only irrational but 
unnatural Mep always have had and always will have 



8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

wants, they always did and always will strive to supply 
those wants, and he who is sufficiently energetic or suffi- 
ciently fortunate to acquire the means of gratifying 
those wants never did and never will consent to an 
equal division with his fellows, who have been either 
less energetic or less fortunate ; hence all ideas looking 
to the abolition of government which has been estab- 
lished for the protection of this personal property and 
life should be absolutely abandoned, and the thoughts of 
men directed towards the institution of some social 
or governmental system, by virtue of which the personal 
accumulations of men cannot become so colossal as to 
be useless and unwieldy to their possessors and a detri- 
ment to the well-being of communities ; and, at the 
same time, towards providing for every individual in- 
creased opportunity for acquiring a reasonable com- 
petency and an increased security of its peaceful 
enjoyment after having been acquired. For years a 
constant and unrelenting strife has existed between 
employer and employe, which, with disagreeable and 
finally with alarming frequency, has interrupted the 
trade and business of the world ; has caused distrust 
and insecurity to become rife in all moneyed centres, 
which has pervaded the body politic, permeated every 
enterprise, and stifled the progress of the world's affairs. 
So great and so irremediable appears to be the discontent 
of the masses that, in 1890, the Emperor of Germany, 
whose predecessors and compeers had never hitherto 
vaguely dreamed of recognizing or countenancing the 
cogent force of popular unrest and intrigue, called a 
conference of laboring men for the purpose of con- 
sidering the cause of the prevailing universal complaint, 
and, if possible, to provide a remedy. 

In keeping with the influences and conditions that 



PHRONOCRACY 9 

usually prevail where no definite plan is proposed — no 
definite end at which all could aim, suggested, — this and 
many other conferences of similar character and import 
resulted in nothing save to aggravate rather than to 
assuage the manifest grievances under which the masses 
groaned. In America, Russia, and France, incipient 
manifestations of anarchism have been from time to 
time displayed, but such is the force of prudence and 
good sense that no great upheaval of the people with an 
unconquerable spirit to burn, pillage, and rob, has yet 
occurred. 

Civilization has reached such a condition that, though 
the whole of Europe is armed for the purpose of main- 
taining national autonomy, thwarting foreign aggression, 
and suppressing domestic insurrection, yet most conten- 
tions and differences, whether national, social, commercial, 
or individual, are settled by the arbitraments of peace, 
not by the sword and cannon in the ghastly throes of 
bloody war. 

Discussions, even in the iron-ruled and tyrannically 
oppressed empires of Europe, are prevalent, both on the 
hustings and in the prints. 

No direct effort has been of late years made at the de- 
thronement of governments ; but murmurs of discontent 
are uttered by the people of those countries where the 
popular voice, though capable of being uttered, cannot 
be made effectual, by reason of the oppression of the 
military and the divine right of the king. 

In America the difficulty has existed not in the ability 
to change or modify existing conditions, but to devise 
some plan that would receive the support of a sufficient 
number to make its purposes effective. Some orators 
and writers have maintained that the people are suffering 
from no grievance that legislation can mitigate, much 



10 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

less relieve ; that the gulf between Dives and Lazarus 
always existed, and always would exist ; that civilization 
requires that there should be a master and a slave, 
or rather an employer and an employe ; that we must 
have scrapers for our streets and stokers for our ships ; 
that we can never more effectually eradicate poverty 
than we can extirpate disease ; and, in fact, that the 
world would be no better if all were in affluence, or even 
possessed of a reasonable degree of comfort, than if 
a few were opulent and the many in rags. 

Others, however, maintain that the earth belongs in 
usufruct to the people, which in a measure is true, 
and that all men are entitled to its benefits and rewards ; 
that the fact that the wealth of the world is being so 
rapidly concentrated into the hands of the few, and 
to an extent that does not benefit but actually burthens 
its possessors, is an unnatural condition, and should be 
changed. 

A few individuals now become possessed of a property 
that is monopolistic in its nature ; and, by reason of the 
rapid increase of population and consequent increased 
demand, there arises an increase in value — " an unearned 
increment," — for which the owners are in no sense re- 
sponsible, and of which they should never be possessed, 
beyond certain reasonable limitations. 

Labor organizations combine so as to curtail the 
supply ; demand shorter hours for work, so as to give 
occupation to more individuals or to lessen the burthen 
upon those who are engaged. Capital will concentrate 
into trusts and associations, so that it becomes a matter 
of serious doubt whether or not all capital will not 
eventually drift into one grand monopoly and labor into 
one discontented mass. 

Among the extremists of both sides who are capable 



PHRONOCRACY 1 1 

of considering, and who possess inherently the candor to 
confess, there seems to obtain a concurrence of opinion 
that possibly the present conditions are not as good as 
they might be made, nor yet as bad as they have been 
pictured. Anarchy having been absolutely abandoned 
by thinking men, there remains only those who recognize 
man's right to property, hence the necessity for some 
kind of government. The first class maintain that the 
existence of wealth and poverty are natural conditions, 
essential to the progress of civilization, and cannot be 
altered ; the second claiming that there must be a more 
equitable distribution of wealth, and consequent allevia- 
tion of the pangs of poverty. 

The first class insist upon the curtailment of the ballot 
and the vigorous enforcement of property rights and 
class distinctions. Many of the second class, after hav- 
ing attempted by various schemes to equalize man's con- 
dition and estate, finally concentrated upon the principle 
that government should own all and operate all the enter- 
prises of life to which man's energies could be devoted ; 
because by this means alone could the fruits of industry 
be equitably distributed ; or, in other words, that if every 
individual labored for the state, the result of that labor 
would be the accumulation of wealth in the aggregate to 
about the same extent as now, when the accumulation is 
placed into the hands of fortunate individuals, and that 
the state having received these accumulations could in 
turn distribute the same fairly and equitably among the 
people, who in either case contributed them, but who 
under existing conditions failed to receive any distribu- 
tive share, save a paltry sufficiency for life's actual needs, 
frequently not even that, and never any of its luxuries. 

Others of the second class propose various schemes of 
taxation, prominent among whom are the single- or land- 



12 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

tax advocators ; others, the control by government of 
the enterprises of greatest magnitude chat are claimed to 
be in their nature monopolistic, such as railways, high- 
ways, canals and waterways — in a word, all enterprises 
relating to transportation and communication ; others in 
America oppose foreign immigration. 

Others argue that the policy of national protection 
against the products of human labor in all countries 
would surely operate as a panacea for all ills in any 
country ; others, that close competition of the products 
of all by unconditional free trade will effect the desired 
result — that is, alleviate the condition of the masses. 

Thus to an endless multiplicity are plans and schemes 
proposed until there likewise exists a chaos of objection 
of difficulty and doubt. In America, where every human 
is a king, or where at least every individual participates 
in the creation of the king and in the policies that shall 
control his reign, the discussion is of course more univer- 
sal and widespread, and it is commonly admitted that if 
any decided alteration in existing social condition is to 
be inaugurated, it will most likely begin in the United 
States. 

There the idea of individual liberty from the thraldom 
of the king first had its birth and there the experiment 
was first inaugurated, the success of which, though 
scouted at and scorned by the sages of the civilized earth, 
has become, after a century of experiment, universally 
acknowledged ; so that the States now stand united, and, 
with an ever increasing effulgence, blazing forth the 
brightest stars in the galaxy of nations — the pride of 
their people and the envy of the world. 

In America naturally should be conceived, and if pos- 
sible executed, the idea of individual liberty from the 
thraldom of concentrated wealth, and there, after many 



PHRONOCRACY 1 3 

discouraging vicissitudes and trials, may be achieved, ere 
long, the most glorious civil triumph that has ever been 
recorded in the history of nations. 

That triumph will be the result of a compromise be- 
tween the most liberal and progressive of the advocates 
of the old system of unlimited individual property accu- 
mulations and rigid and imperious class caste and aristo- 
cratic distinction, and the most conservative of the advo- 
cates of socialism of all varieties ; the two absorbing, 
as it were, the very essence of manhood itself, that is, 
the progressive middle classes — the central portion of 
the arch in which is always found the keystone of the 
structure. It is observed by statisticians that in America 
the increase of wealth is proportionate to the increase of 
population, but that the possession of that wealth is con- 
centrating with alarming rapidity. In other words, the 
average wealth per capita has usually been somewhere in 
the neighborhood of one thousand dollars — the American 
standard coin. In 1880, when the population was forty- 
five million, the aggregate wealth of the country was 
about forty-four billion and in 1890, when the popula- 
tion was sixty-four millions, the wealth of the country 
was sixty-one billion. 

It was estimated in 1880, that the world was growing 
richer to the extent of about ten million dollars per day, 
of which the United States of America contributed about 
one fourth. Now, therefore, it becomes apparent that if 
the possessors of property diminished in anything like 
the same ratio that property itself increases, there must 
come a time when the world and all that is in it might 
practically be owned by one single man. 

What good could such possessions be to any individual ? 
Or what use could the wealth of the world be to a million 
individuals ? Great fortunes accrete with an accelerated 



14 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

velocity, whilst the requirements of life remain practi- 
cally the same. One man can eat only so much food, 
though he possess the means to buy food for ten thousand. 
One man can wear only a certain amount of clothing, 
though he be able to supply raiment for the civilized 
world ; he can only sleep in one bed and under one 
roof at one time, though he be able to supply both for a 
million of his fellows. What use, therefore, to any indi- 
vidual is the possession of property ten thousand times 
greater than he actually requires or can possibly use ? 
Why should a man gather into his storehouse ten million 
blankets when he can Only use one, and permit them to 
be there till they are moth-eaten and useless, when a 
million of his followers are shivering with cold ? Why 
should any man by any system that is recognized by the 
civilization of the world be permitted to gather into his 
garner food for one million souls and permit it to lie 
there till it rots, when thousands of his fellows are 
starving ? 

The abandonment of anarchism, which is offensive to 
all good citizens (for all such recognize the fact that 
until the human being has reached absolute perfection, 
laws must be instituted for his protection and restraint), 
aids much the cause of the approaching reformation. 
Threats of violence cause more rigid discipline, whilst 
appeals to reason prompt mutual discussion. When the 
possessors of several million dollars (of which class there 
are several in the world) are confronted with the ques- 
tion, as they now are with much frequency and force, 
even by the most conservative of daily prints, " What 
good to yourself and family is so much wealth ? " they 
are at a loss to reply. If you cannot possibly use it, 
then your only desire is glory, or the personal satisfaction 
of excelling someone else. You have reached a point 



PHRONOCRACY I 5 

where accumulation is in excess of the desire for pro- 
vision against possible want, and you have acquired a 
fortune beyond the point which is thought reasonable to 
stimulate exertion. Each thousand dollars will earn 
about fifty dollars per year, which is more than the aver- 
age human being can earn in excess of his support. 

In a word, the millions who toil are in but very few 
instances richer at the end of a year even to the extent 
of fifty dollars than they were at the beginning ; whilst 
every man who owns one thousand dollars can safely 
rely on an income of fifty dollars or more. 

Disassociated from technical definitions, all wealth is 
the result of labor. The world grows richer year by 
year because its inhabitants are adding to Nature's pos- 
sessions, their labor. 

What is not consumed in sustenance, and consequently 
destroyed, represents accumulation. 

Money is simply an agency for facilitating exchanges, 
and represents but a very small portion of the property 
of the world. Primarily and, it would appear, very 
justly man is entitled to the products of his own la- 
bor ; in other words, to the wealth that he himself 
creates. 

The wants of the civilized man are many and various. 
Without attempting to name or classify, it is safe to 
assume that he who ean supply, surrounds himself with 
at least one thousand different articles — all produced by 
labor from the earth and its belongings ; hence, each 
man being entitled to the products of his own labor, 
would, in order to live in a civilized state, be obliged to 
produce these one thousand different articles or remain 
unprovided unless some other scheme of procurement 
could be suggested or devised. As it is not within the 
limit of one man's capacity to produce what he wants of 



1 6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

each of the said one thousand articles, and as different 
men are adapted to different avocations, and have pref- 
erences and capabilities differing from each other, some 
will naturally drift into one thing and some into another. 
The man who produces shoes naturally wants clothes, 
and he who produces hats naturally wants spoons, and 
so forth, and so on throughout the entire list of indi- 
vidual requirements. The bootmaker will voluntarily 
exchange boots for clothes ; in other words, both will- 
ingly exchange their respective products ; hence there 
arises the system of barter and exchange. In this ex- 
change, some must get more value than others, and so 
in the work of production some will produce more 
than others, some are more frugal and fortunate than 
others, and some are sick less frequently than others ; 
hence from causes entirely natural and unavoidable, 
some will become richer than others. 

Increased riches enable the possessor to provide in- 
creased facility, and increased facilities either increase 
excellence or cheapen production ; hence some more 
fortunate bootmaker, from causes entirely natural, can 
produce a better boot, which he can exchange for the 
product of another man's labor, than the less fortunate 
can produce, or he can produce the same quality under 
conditions and circumstances that enable him to ex- 
change it for less value, resulting inevitably and yet 
naturally in driving the less favored out of business, who 
must engage in some other occupation or sell his labor 
to the other man at an agreed compensation ; hence, 
employer and employe, and it must, will, and should be 
so to the crack of doom. 

The employer will not of course pay the employe the 
full amount of his value, but must reserve for himself a 
profit on his labor, and if this profit is ten per cent., he 



PHRONOCRACY 1 7 

has but to employ ten men to gain the labor of one indi- 
vidual complete, and so on till a vast fortune has been 
amassed, and each step in the procedure has been rea- 
sonable and natural and consented to voluntarily by the 
less fortunate man. 

Ten thousand different civilizations might be begun on 
the earth and whilst men are men — whilst we are what 
we are — the result as above briefly outlined will in the 
end be substantially the same, because men are not all 
equal ; if equal, they are not all favored with the same 
fortunate conditions ; hence some must advance, some 
must accumulate — it is unavoidable so long as human 
beings are a part and parcel of, or an incident to, the 
earth and its operations. To repeat : conditions are not 
the same, and men are not the same ; if conditions were 
the same and men, as all admit — must admit — differ, as 
they do, in energy, frugality, shrewdness, and perspica- 
city, then no law or social restriction that applies to all 
men alike will ever prevent one man from being lord and 
another his slave or practically that. The only solution, 
it must be finally agreed, is to institute a system of laws 
that do not apply to all men alike and under circum- 
stances reasonably just and equitable. 

To devise some scheme by which individuals may be 
permitted to reap the benefits of their energy, their 
shrewdness, their brain force, or their good fortune to 
such an extent as will provide adequate remuneration, — 
such as will enable them to acquire not only a compe- 
tency for provision against v/ant, but a sufficiency for 
indulgence in any moderate, or even, if desired, extrava- 
gant luxury, and at the same time secure a barrier 
against excess, is a problem difficult of solution. Still 
greater is the difficulty in instituting a practical barrier 
against excessive accumulation, and at the same time 



1 8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

avoiding any interference with the legitimate progress of 
commercial enterprise. It having been admitted gener- 
ally that men are not equal, it is obvious that gradations 
must exist in society, and it is not improper that they 
always should exist. In order that life itself shall con- 
tinue, it is and will be absolutely necessary that certain 
menial and degrading occupations be engaged in. Some 
men are willing to pursue these trades, and are by nature 
and inclinations suited to the same, while others are not ; 
hence, each individual being unable to perform all the 
services for himself that civilized life requires, in the 
natural turning over and sifting out of affairs, those best 
adapted to and most contented with certain avocations 
usually drift there by natural causes, such as would result 
in the course of time were all civilization to be begun 
anew, unless the conditions, characters, attributes, appe- 
tites, propensities, and adaptabilities of mankind should 
be altered — a result not in keeping with Nature, nor 
likely to occur. 

The Republican and Democratic parties in America 
have practically ignored the questions of excessive 
accumulation, of universal suffrage, of foreign immigra- 
tion, of territorial annexation — of the great and growing 
evils of concentrated capital and the widespread discon- 
tent of the masses of the community. They have been 
devoting all thought to protective duties, legislation 
relative to the coinage of silver, the race question in the 
South, and to pension monstrosities. Between the re- 
spective organizations there has ceased to be any great 
difference on questions of principle. The Republicans 
claim to be, in fact are, protectionists ; yet, they recog- 
nize the necessity for a reduction of import duties. The 
Democrats are really in favor of tariffs for revenue only, 
but are afraid boldlv to assert and vindicate their belief, 



PHRONOCRACY 19 

and continue to temporize and dally with trivial and un- 
important details of a tariff reduction measure until it is 
simply a question between Republicans and Democrats 
whether or not the duty should be taken off this and 
placed on that or taken off that and placed on this — 
whether sheep's wool shall be free or taxed or whether 
sugar should be free or taxed, and after the labor of the 
mountain the mouse is produced bearing a placard on 
its back proclaiming to the world that certain grades of 
sugar shall be free, but for a period of years bounties 
shall be paid to producers, and that wool shall be taxed 
so that the voice of the sheep can be heard in the land 
and the shepherd's crook preserved in all its primitive 
beauty, even though in cheaper lands and in more 
favored climes wool can be produced and sold to the 
consumer at a largely reduced figure. The Republican 
party, in which properly belongs the plutocratic senti- 
ment of America, has failed to deal successfully or at all 
with the alarming concentrations of accumulated wealth ; 
and the Democratic party cannot countenance the cur- 
tailment of suffrage in any form, so that between the two 
neither question is treated, and in fact no questions at all 
are discussed of any great importance on which there are 
any decided differences of opinion. 

This condition of things will continue, and the people 
remain in a state of disquietude and unrest till the 
" Phronocratic " or " Conservative " party promulgates 
its platform, which, in brief, is as follows : 

1 st. No taxation shall be imposed except for revenue. 

2d. That revenue shall be derived from a source that 
is least burthensome to the people and most certain to 
the government, which source is " from property accumu- 
lation" not from imposts, nor from the existing system 
of internal taxation. 



20 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

3d. Taxation shall be so applied as to produce the 
necessary revenue and at the same time check the alarm- 
ing concentration of individual wealth. 

4th. A man to be a voter shall be able to read and 
write English and pay tax on a certain amount of 
property. 

5th Foreign immigration of all Caucasian races of 
self-sustaining capabilities shall be encouraged. 

6th. The jurisdiction of the United States shall as 
soon as possible and consistent with civilized methods 
be extended over the whole of North America. 

7th. " Nothing shall be done by the General Govern- 
ment that the local authorities are competent to do, and 
nothing by any governmental power that individuals can 
do for themselves." 

These are the seven cardinal principles, of which 
number four should become the shibboleth of a new and 
progressive organization to be called the " Phronocratic 
Party" viz. : 

1 st. Cumulative Taxation. 

2d. Electoral Qualifications. 

3d. North-American Annexation. 

4th. Anti-Centralization. 

The party's insignia should be a four-leaf clover, with 
one of the above principles written on each leaf, and the 
white clover-blossom in the centre of all. 

Its principles on being promulgated will at first be 
shouted at as hostile to both property rights and agrarian 
preferences, but conservative men of all parties, and 
especially those cherishing views hitherto more radical, 
will come to the conclusion that some sort of a compro- 
mise between the extreme conditions in life are neces- 
sary and proper. 

Property has rights that must be preserved ; and man- 



PHRONOCRACY 21 

kind has complaints that must not be ignored. All men 
should be permitted to possess property to the greatest amoitnt 
consistent with a proper and just compensation for their abil- 
ity ', their energy, and their opportunity, and should contribute 
to the support of the governmental system that protects that 
property in the ratio of their ability to contribute. 

All men should be permitted to participate in govern- 
ment who have attained that standard of excellence and 
acquired that amount of property necessary to a proper 
appreciation of the purposes of government ; but not 
otherwise. 

The name " Phronocratic " is derived from the Greek 
words eppoveoo, I think, I consider, I reflect, or 
cp povi^y understanding, prudence, knowledge, and 
KpareiVy to be strong, or xparoZ, strength ; and is in- 
tended to express an idea midway between excessive 
Plutocracy — from tcXovtoS, wealth, and xpaToZ, 
strength, into which state or condition it appears as 
though the machinery of government is rapidly drifting 
— and excessive Democracy — from 3r/pio? and xparoS, 
the former signifying " the people in the mass," and the 
latter " strength," or rather " socialism," towards which, 
in natural hostility to the control of the rich, many con- 
servative minds and many good citizens are drifting It 
appears that by the concentration of wealth the govern- 
ment will become irretrievably plutocratic, or that by 
reactionary violence or lawlessness it might become ex- 
cessively democratic or socialistic. 

As both extremes appear useless, the compromise is 
suggested which shall be neither all plutocratic nor 
all socialistic ; that the former shall be checked by 
the institution of a barrier against unreasonable and 
useless individual wealth, and the latter by a prohibition 
against the exercise of useless and ridiculous individual 



22 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

suffrage ; hence, no name can with greater propriety be 
applied to the advocates of the proposed compromise, 
and of the reforms and features incident thereto, than 
" Phronocrats," signifying that party which holds to the 
belief that understanding, prudence, and knowledge are the 
proper foundations on which the government should 
rest, and that neither Plutocracy nor Socialism are for 
the best interests of the people as a whole. 

The plutocratic portion of the Republican party can 
not accept the wealth-curtailing feature of the phrono- 
cratic creed, nor can the Democratic party countenance 
the qualified ballot. Both these extremes are ruining 
the country. Unrestricted wealth is quite as reasonable 
as unrestricted suffrage — both being wrong and altogeth- 
er unreasonable. There seem to be natural and vital 
obstacles in the way of regulating both through either of 
the two great parties, hence it appears impossible for 
Phronocrats to ally themselves with either and accom- 
plish anything whatever. Democrats must always favor 
universal suffrage and Plutocrats must always cling 
to wealth. Phronocracy is more democratic than De- 
mocracy in its antagonism to excessive wealth, but less 
so in its equally reasonable opposition to excessive suf- 
frage. The practicability of these views and the elabo- 
ration and explanation of same in connection with other 
propositions for the betterment of social conditions will 
be discussed in the following pages. 



CHAPTER II. 

Existing social conditions objectionable — excessive accumulations 
dangerous — Unearned increment : Man's right to same in mod- 
eration — Free Trade and Protection : America's progress not 
attributable to either — Timidity of Tariff-Reform Free-Traders 
— The Wall policy and World policy — The American farmers' 
illogical position — Baneful paternalism. 

No reasonable argument having ever been adduced 
against the rightful possession of individual property 
and the maintenance of a governmental system which 
would guarantee its possession in peaceful and uninter- 
rupted enjoyment and control, some people are disposed 
sneeringly to ask, "What do the masses want? What 
would they have ? Is there any cause for complaint ? 
Have they any grievance whatever?" "Is it," in fact, 
many ask, " a detriment to society that a few individuals 
should own the property of the world ? Do not the 
masses receive their per-diem for their toil, and with 
that compensation can they net secure the actual needs 
and requirements of life ?" 

All men possess a natural right to breathe the air, to 
drink the water, and, if need be for argument, to occupy 
the land. However, civilization and the occupation by 
man of lands and climes not suited to his primitive con- 
ditions create needs and wants of great diversification, 
and, in man's labor to supply these wants, by reason of 
the inequality that exists in the physical and mental 
organization of. man as an individual and of the varied 

23 



24 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

and unequal conditions to which he is unavoidably sub- 
jected, the possession of the products that supply these 
wants becomes unequal, and, as has been shown, by 
causes entirely natural and in conformity with the con- 
sent of the less favored individual. 

The weight of public opinion must, however, finally 
settle down to a recognition of the fact that the masses 
have a grievance — that the greatest good to the greatest 
number is not subserved when the wherewithal to secure 
the desirable things of life is possessed by the least 
possible number, as is the inevitable result of things as 
they are controlled by existing conditions. 

The most cogent agent in producing excessive 
accumulations is the wealth represented by the "Un- 
earned Increment." Where enterprises are monopolistic 
in their nature — that is, such as are practically exempt 
from the effects of competition, as is the case with most 
railways and highways, canals and waterways, the un- 
earned increments grow to colossal proportions in any 
prosperous state ; but in such enterprises as represent 
the ordinary trade and traffic of the world — that is, the 
butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker, where 
competition is spirited and universal, the unearned in- 
crement is of no considerable importance. This element 
of increase resulting from the stimulated patronage or 
demand of the people, is caused by increasing population, 
and is especially noticeable and striking in the United 
States of America, where towns and cities grow up as 
rapidly as the flowers of the tropics ; where the iron rail 
is close in the wake of the buffalo's trail, and where the 
hoot of the owl and the screech of the wildcat scarce 
cease to echo in the jungles of the forest till the whole 
is ablaze with electric illumination. To deny man's 
right to become possessed of the value resulting from 



PHRONOCRACY 25 

unearned increment is tantamount to a denial of man's 
right to property in the abstract ; for, if entitled to 
possession at all, he has as just a right to the good, or 
such as will and does profit by unearned increment, as 
to the bad, which might and does become still worse by 
abandonment and decay. Before any party for the 
furtherance of any of the proposed systems of reform 
can assume any magnitude, the question of Free Trade 
and Protection, in America, must be thoroughly threshed 
out. For years, party lines have divided on this all- 
important issue. America has progressed beyond the 
wildest dream of its most enthusiastic citizens. It has 
grown in population, in wealth, and in power faster than 
the fires of its prairies can sweep the autumnal grass 
from its limitless plains ; there seems to be no bounds 
to its possibilities, no limit to the ambition of its citizens, 
and no measure to their vanity — no shrine at which they 
will consent to worship and no king before whom they 
will bow. They appear to be ready to wrestle with the 
angels and to command the lightning of the sky, and 
should one of Glory's brightest suns that ever shone in 
the meridians of heaven descend from his lofty eminence 
arrayed in all his celestial attire, they would be 
anxious to contest and contend with him for the 
superiority of their plans and the excellence of their 
systems. 

Though owning, in 1890, that part of North America, 
from the Mexican Gulf to the northern lakes, and from 
the restless waters of the Atlantic to the golden shores 
of the Pacific, yet the grand old American Eagle, the 
emblem of liberty and power, is fancifully pictured at no 
far future day to stand with his feet perched upon the 
ferruginous mountains of Missouri — soon to be the centre 
of population and power — with his pinions outspread, lash- 



26 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ing the billows of both oceans, his beak plunged into the 
frozen waters of the Arctic Zone, his tail winnowing the 
waves of the Carribbean Sea, with a hundred million 
people marshalled in the holy cause of liberty, pursuing 
countless diversified occupations in fraternity and peace. 

All this is by some attributed to that policy of protec- 
tion to home industry that has been instituted from the 
necessary imposition of an almost prohibitory tariff as a 
means of securing a revenue for the suppression of the 
Rebellion of i86r, and the liquidation of the debts in- 
curred by reason thereof — a most stupid error. The 
country has progressed, not by reason, but in spite of, 
protection, as has been maintained, pending the exhaust- 
less controversies and debates on the subject, and as will 
be proven when, after a material reduction, and finally 
the complete extirpation of the fallacy, things still move 
on as they will move. The delay in the destruction of 
the system is prolonged by the foolish persistence of the 
laboring classes, in spite not only of theoretical but 
practical demonstrations, in the belief that therein is a 
remedy for their grievances ; in other words, that a sys- 
tem that causes food and raiment to be dearer, and 
which tends to increase and centralize the wealth of the 
country, can and will alleviate their pangs. That such 
monstrous and appalling stupidity could obtain in the 
minds of the masses is beyond the ken of the few who 
fully appreciated the enormity of the error. 

That designing politicians should prey upon the igno- 
rance of the people, or that corrupt and inordinately 
vicious propagandists should become the mercenary 
tools of the few who have been profiting by the system, 
is not especially surprising, but is baneful and pernicious. 

Figures and statistics have been piled mountain high by 
the advocates of both sides in the controversy. The fact 



PHRONOCRACY 2J 

that the country has progressed results to the advantage 
of the protectionist, and to such an extent that for many 
years the other party, that really favors throwing off the 
yoke, has been obliged, either from motives of policy or 
has consented from promptings of timidity, to appear 
before the country in a false and ridiculous attitude. 
One side cries protection for the sake of protection, and 
consistently maintains its position by so-called argu- 
ments directed to its support, thus perpetuating its 
ascendancy and the continuance of the system ; and the 
other party, composed of men utterly hostile to the prin- 
ciple of protection, and who know that its effects are 
injurious and necessarily discriminating — who are in favor 
of no tax, save for revenue, and that from the source least 
burthensome to the people and most certain to the gov- 
ernment, for want of bold and vigorous leadership mildly 
pose before the public with dulcet muttering, — sweet, 
sugar-coated pellets, to the effect that they are not free- 
traders — oh, no, — but " Tariff Reformers " ; that protec- 
tion is a good thing, but we want just a little less of it. 
If it is a good thing, the people naturally conclude that 
they wish not less but more of it, and if a bad thing, 
then they want none of it at all, save for such a period 
as would be prudent to effect the speediest conservative 
change. The country requires, of course, a certain 
amount of revenue, and even the outspoken free-trader 
cannot for some time advocate the total abolition of 
imposts, for the reason that he cannot conceive of any 
other source from which to derive the much-needed 
revenue, and from which more than half that now col- 
lected is obtained ; but Phronocracy points out the 
source. Finally, revenue will again begin to be col- 
lected largely in excess of the wants of the govern- 
ment prudently administered. The public indebtedness 



28 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

will become greatly reduced — even brought in at a pre- 
mium — pensions will begin, after the most unreasonable 
and astounding increase, also to decline, and it will be 
found to be absolutely imperative that taxation should 
be reduced, or the earnings of the country will be need- 
lessly absorbed by the government to lie dormant in its 
treasury, a temptation to extravagant and vicious legisla- 
tion, or be by some means redistributed among the 
people. It appears to be idle folly to collect a fund 
simply that it may be again distributed. 

The best distribution is that which exists before there 
is any contribution. Finally, even the strongest protec- 
tionists will be obliged to yield to popular clamor for 
reduced taxation. They will doubtless begin by curtail- 
ing internal revenues, then by small reductions on such 
articles as it is thought cannot be produced in the 
country — a ridiculous condition of governmental stu- 
pidity. An article that cannot be made at home can be 
bought by the consumer in the world's cheapest markets ; 
but if there is a remote expectation of domestic pro- 
duction, the consumer must pay tribute to some favored 
manufacturer. 

The question of free trade and protection, unvexed 
by statistical information, finally resolves itself into the 
following : 

Shall governments, like individuals, pursue and en- 
courage such avocations as are most fittingly suited to 
their natural adaptabilities and conditions, or shall they 
not ? It has been long since determined that the price 
of labor is and can only be regulated by supply and de- 
mand ; that if labor could be consolidated into trades 
unions and assemblies, none of the individuals thereof 
consenting to supply his labor for less than a certain 
compensation, a certain price could be secured, or by 



PHRONOCRACY 29 

reason of a demand in excess of supply an increase 
could be demanded and obtained, but not otherwise, 
and this temporarily only. The thinking portion of 
laboring men have begun to understand that legislation 
cannot supply what legitimate demand does not war- 
rant ; that the only way they can maintain a high rate of 
wages is to curtail the supply, not to increase the duty 
on the products of labor. If ten thousand men should 
be engaged in the manufacture of clothes, and the in- 
dustry in which they were employed was the only one in 
the country in which they lived, is there any laboring 
man so daft as to conclude that if the tariff on cloths 
was doubled the price of their wages would be doubled 
if their employer could possibly secure operatives for 
Jess ? All such conclusions are unnatural and prepos- 
terous, and it will soon be obvious to all wage earners 
that the price of labor is controlled, like the price of 
everything else, by supply and demand only. It is use- 
less, therefore, to expect from legislation any alleviation 
of the condition of labor that does not control the 
demand and supply of that labor. It is likewise useless 
to expect to curtail the supply save by that questionably 
efficacious method — organization. Tariffs will never 
reach it. 

How ridiculous is the proposition that seeks to main- 
tain the price of labor by instituting a prohibition against 
the products of labor, and yet invites that labor itself, 
freely and without restraint. 

Is a laboring man any the less formidable and com- 
petitive because he works directly at the elbow of another, 
than he is if he labors three thousand miles away ? Is 
he not rather more competitive to the extent of the cost 
of the transportation of the article he produces ? Then 
why should a laboring man argue for protection against 



3<D POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

the products of labor ? It is a barren ideality, it is simply 
illusory and absurd. 

Protection, therefore, against the products of labor 
tends only to increase their cost to the consumer, giving 
the increased price as an item of profit to the protected 
manufacturer, not as a means of increasing the price of 
labor, which, be it again asserted in defiance of disproof, 
can be effected only by curtailing of supply or increase 
of demand. 

Why is the relative price of labor, in 1890, in the Em- 
pire of Germany — a highly protected country — less than 
the same in free-trade England, unless because the de- 
mand for labor in proportion to the supply is less ? 
These facts will be, as time progresses, fully appreciated 
by the laboring masses who have for years been mis- 
guided by the enticing and pleasant sound of the cabal- 
istic word "Protection." 

It will finally be admitted by the advocates of the 
system that there never was any justification for their 
policy save in "national independence," that is, as the 
free-traders always affirmed, there is one argument and 
only one — national independence. Statistics and figures 
are produced and information obtained to show that 
certain benefits have resulted in certain periods during 
which the policy has prevailed, but never has man been 
able to prove that the same or greater results might not 
have been achieved had the contrary policy been adopted. 
Volumes have been and may yet be written, but finally 
it will be admitted that there never was any good argu- 
ment for protection save that of national indepen- 
dence. All others have a retro-active effect. If the same 
protection be granted to every individual in a country, 
that is, say for example, twenty per cent, on everybody's 
products, the result would be that in fact no one would 



PHRONOCRACY 3 1 

be protected, because he would be obliged to pay as much 
more for everything he used as his protection amounted 
to ; hence, he had as well, in common with his fellows, 
exist without any. Therefore, if universal protection 
would be tantamount to no protection at all, how can 
partial protection be anything else than rank discrimi- 
nation ? In other words, if out of one thousand pursuits, 
in the prosecution of which the population of a country 
is engaged, one hundred are protected, it follows neces- 
sarily that the price of the products of these favored few 
will be enhanced to the extent of that protection until 
domestic competition reduces the said price to within a 
reasonable limit of gain. Then, during this interval, the 
consumer has paid a premium for his goods that he might 
otherwise have saved. What has he received in return 
for that outlay ? — an industry or say ten industries. Is 
there any absolute proof that the United States would 
not have secured these industries in any case, even had 
the protective duty not been imposed ? 

There is no possible argument in favor of developing 
an industry at home if the cost of that development is 
greater than the value of the industry to the country. 

If the United States of America were so constituted 
by natural position, agricultural conditions, and climatic 
influences as to be able to produce Indian corn, cotton, 
and wheat only, and that they could produce these arti- 
cles cheaper than any other nation, would it not be a 
wise and frugal policy for the population to engage in 
these productions and exchange their crops for the vari-^ 
ous other articles of human requirements, or rather to 
sell and then to buy, than to tax their people for the im- 
portation of these articles, so that an unnatural industry 
could be developed at home ? Certainly this would be 
economy, frugality, and general good policy, provided 



32 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

there was an absolute assurance that the various needs 
of human life that were produced by outside countries 
could always be obtained. If a man can always buy 
boots from a bootmaker, why should he bother about 
learning to produce them himself at a greater cost ? If a 
country cannot naturally produce grapes by reason of 
the rigors of its climate, why should it tax its people so 
that some individual should be enabled to produce them 
under unnatural and consequently more expensive con- 
ditions, making the price more than they could be bought 
for from lands and climes where their cultivation is in 
conformity with natural and consequently cheaper pro- 
duction ? 

For years protectionists have supported their policies 
by presenting to the people an endless array of statistical 
information going to show that from i860 to 1880 the 
population had increased to such and such proportions, 
and that since only a certain part thereof has been de- 
rived from immigration, it necessarily follows that pro- 
tection also gives a marvellous stimulus to the fecundity 
of American wives. They have submitted data to show 
that factories have increased and multiplied ; that rail- 
ways have been extended into remote sections of the 
country — in a word, that the sun has cast his benign and 
life-giving rays upon their continent, that the clouds have 
wept over their three million square miles of arable 
land — all attributable to protection. Such high-sound- 
ing platitudes, however, will ere long spend their force 
and the populace will begin to inquire, "Would it not 
have been so under any other policy ? " 

From statistics the other, or free-traders-under-the- 
bushel party, are able to show that during periods ante- 
rior to the great internecine struggle, when comparatively 
no protection existed, a greater amount of territory was 



PHRONOCRACY 33 

added to the public domain, an equal, and in some 
respects a greater, proportionate augmentation of both 
wealth and population was secured, and an equal labor 
remuneration paid, than under any era of high protective 
duties. So that the votaries of each policy must substan- 
tially assume the following diametrically opposite position 
without any evasion, conciliation, or compromise : 

i st. That if protection is good then prohibition, which 
would be the perfection of protection, would be better. 

2d. If reduced duties on imports is good, then free 
trade, which is the perfection of said reduction, would 
be better. 

Hence, therefore, the people may soon be obliged to 
choose between two ultra alternatives, the one of com- 
plete commercial isolation from the outside world, or the 
Chinese-Wall policy, as it should be called, and the 
other unrestricted contact with the entire outside world, 
or the " World " policy, as it should be called. Tersely 
presented to the people, there will be the " Wall " policy 
and the "''World" policy. There is no argument that 
can be presented in favor of the " Wall " policy except 
that of national independence ; all others are sophisti- 
cal, easily refuted, and almost absurd. 

They react upon each other and, of course, render 
null any effect. We must tax our people, it is urged, to 
build up within our wall industries that will supply all 
our civilized and daily increasing wants ; for, notwith- 
standing the great improvement in facilities for the 
navigation of the sea, and the increasing sources from 
which people can buy, yet, there may come a time when 
the supply will be cut off and we will be left in a state of 
lingering chagrin, with a redundance of wealth but no 
opportunity to exchange it for our diversified wants. 

The " World "-policy advocates claim that such argu- 
3 



34 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ments are jejune and visionary ; that it has long since 
been demonstrated that wherever there existed a demand 
there would come a supply ; that when conditions are 
ripe, fitting, and appropriate, all industries would come 
without the artificial and unreliable stimulus of pro- 
hibitory legislation, and even if not that, there are two 
essential elements of profit or gain : one is to buy cheap 
and the other to sell high — goods well bought are half 
sold, — and that there is no more reason or sound sense 
in instituting a system under and by reason of which the 
people are excluded from the cheapest markets in which 
to buy — one of the essential elements of gain, — than 
there would be in the imposition of a similar prohibition 
against exportation, thus excluding them from a good 
market in which to sell — the other essential element of 
profit and gain. 

It is an undeniable principle of nature that one thing 
cannot be artificially builded up unless another thing is 
correspondingly torn down. Hence, in protecting the 
classes there must be oppression to the masses. 

If, therefore, natural competition is interfered with, 
and by schemes of legislation one man or one set of men 
are enabled to acquire for their product 20 per cent, 
more than the price at which it could be secured in the 
world's open market, it is a direct gain to him or them ; 
but must be a corresponding loss to some other man or 
set of men, or nature has gone crosswise and twice two 
have ceased to be four. The only undetermined link in 
the chain is, in what respect has the second man been 
recompensed for his loss ? If to the full extent of the 
other man's gain, then the conditions are equalized and 
there was never any use for the protection originally — 
the books balance. If he has not been adequately and 
fully recompensed, then an injustice has been forced 
upon him, and the system that forces it is wrong. 



PHRONOCRACY 35 

It has been discovered that all the masses receive 
consequent upon the protection to the classes is a kind 
of mushroom growth of industries. Those that are 
sufficiently well founded could have existed without it 
and will exist when it is abolished. The fungus growth 
will soon perish, but on their ruins will soon be erected 
sufficient of every description to compete successfully 
with the producers of the world. It is found that the 
consuming masses pay in increased prices to the pro- 
tected classes fully ten times as much as the industries 
created are worth to the country, and in all cases until 
home competition forces prices down to within a reason- 
able limit of gain, which usually requires years, the 
protected classes pocket the major part of this excess. 
It is found that a rolling-mill or foundry that can 
produce 10,000 tons of merchant's iron per year can 
easily be erected for $200,000. The average price of 
its product for the twenty years intervening from 1870 
to 1890 is found to be about forty dollars per ton, repre- 
senting a business of $400,000 annually, or $8,000,000 
for the entire twenty years. By comparison, the price of 
the product to the domestic commoner above that which 
he would have paid in competitive markets of the outer/ 
world has been fully 25 per cent., representing $2,ooo,t, 
000 outlay for a plant costing only*$2oo,ooo. For years 
the laborer has been misguided into the belief that this 
tremendous excess was paid out to him in increased 
rates of wages, but recently the scales have fallen from 
his eyes, and he sees that his employer obtains operators 
wherever he can get them cheapest ; that whilst the 
product of the manufacturer is protected the laborers of 
the world can come in free ; that the only way he can 
succeed in maintaining a higher rate of wages is by 
organized unions and consequent avoidance of competi- 



$6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

tion, which for years, while skilled mechanics were 
scarce, has worked to good advantage, but now and for 
the future, by the very stimulus that the protectionists 
claim is making the laborer rich, there is and will 
be allured from continental Europe, from China, from 
India and Japan, hoards of competitive operators that 
would otherwise have remained in the lands of their 
sires. So that the very thing that is falsely claimed as a 
protection to labor, by prohibiting its products, results 
in the virtual ruination of good wages by bringing to 
the country thousands of competitive operatives. 

Looking at the case from the standpoint of reason, it 
appears incredible that the laboring men have been so 
long gulled and betrayed by so palpable a delusion. 

Why could they not see that protection against foreign 
products could only result in keeping out these products, 
consequently causing the price to be high, and that in- 
viting, as this allurement does, the labor of the world, 
could only result in increasing labor competition and in 
making wages low ? 

Such protection is like holding a glittering tinsel 
before the eyes of a baby ; it stretches out its arms and 
cries for it, even though you tell it that it is hot, because 
a baby has not sense enough to know that a hot thing 
will burn. 

So with the laborer and protection. Equally senseless, 
and if possible more thoroughly inexplicable, is the posi- 
tion so long persistently maintained by the American 
farmers, who, in 1890, numbered nearly one half of the 
population of the country. This class of citizens, usually 
prudent and frugal, are supposed to consider and sup- 
port measures tending to the public good, but for years, 
whilst being compelled to sell their wheat and their corn 
in competition with the producers of the world, they 



PHRONOCRACY 3/ 

have blindly supported protection in many localities, 
apparently preferring to pay an increased price for their 
implements rather than to be able to secure them in the 
markets in which they are forced to sell their crops ; in 
other words, they sell in the competitive what is neces- 
sarily the cheapest, and buy in the protected which 
is necessarily the dearest market ; hence, as an inevitable 
result, the mortgages on farms are in many cases thicker 
than the soil itself — almost as thick as the skulls of the 
mortgagors. However, it is not so much stupidity as 
prejudice that causes such anomalous associations in 
political affairs. 

A Northern farmer had been a Republican during the 
war when he favored the preservation of the Union ; 
how could he now march under any other banner, it 
matters not how much opposed to his interests present 
Republican policies may be ? 

Opinions and associations are oftener the result of 
prejudices and passion than of reflection and reason ; 
hence great reforms are more frequently accomplished 
by the thunder of guns and the glistening of swords than 
by the peaceful processes of reflection and thought. 
However, the days of bloodshed consequent upon politi- 
cal or religious differences have long since been past ; 
yet many men who honestly believe that the continuation 
of protection principles and policies are prejudicial, if 
not almost fatal, to the good of the greatest number of 
the people, act as though they would rather face the 
muzzle of a dynamite gun than to affiliate with the party 
calling itself Democratic, even though the position of 
that party and the propositions of its platforms should 
be identically harmonious with their personal opinions as 
to present federal policies, and it will not be until the 
new organization called " Phronocratic or Conservative" 



38 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

possesses men's affiliation and support that the hitherto 
Republicans of anti-protection sympathies will begin to 
vote at all for their individual interests. To this organi- 
zation also should be subsequently added the most 
progressive and liberal of the plutocratic class and the 
most responsible and conservative of the rankest Demo- 
cratic or socialistic class. 

The growth of the organization may be as slow as its 
methods are conservative, but its foundation will be as 
solid as its professions are sound. The changing opin- 
ions of the country as to the principle of protection will 
result simply in uprooting an old and worn-out prejudice, 
and will be a step in the direction of the greater reforms 
that may follow. Its most valuable effect, aside from its 
influence on commerce, which will be shown by its 
results, will be to pave the way for the victory that will 
finally establish ineradicably the principle that all pater- 
nalism in government is baneful and pernicious and 
hostile to the perpetuity of republican institutions, ex- 
cept that interference and safeguard which will prevent 
an unreasonable and unwarranted concentration of indi- 
vidual wealth and vouchsafe to property moderately 
possessed increased security, stability, and force. — Such 
is Phronocracy. 



CHAPTER III. 

Necessity for relief from monopoly — Government control of monopo- 
listic enterprises : objections thereto — Inefficiency of most gov- 
ernmental management — Governmental control of all business — 
Greater objection thereto and the impracticability thereof — 
Differences in human excellence must be recognized — Support 
government from excessive individual accumulations — Evil effects 
of certain restrictive legislation — Socialistic schools. 

The questions of free trade and protection having 
been briefly discussed, and the inadequacy of the preva- 
lence of either theory for the proper adjustment and 
regulation of social affairs and wants being admitted, it 
is clear that other and greater remedies must be applied 
to bring about that improvement in social affairs that 
appears to be suggested in the interest of humanity and 
demanded as a check to monopolistic power. The 
proposition that the government should own and operate 
the enterprises of the country that are by nature monopo- 
listic, such as railways, highways, canals, and waterways, 
now comes up for consideration. 

The principal reason for the advocacy of this proposi- 
tion appears to lie in the fact that out of these enterprises 
has been derived the most colossal accumulations, and 
that the only possible remedy is to absorb those accumu- 
lations by government or to so cheapen the price of the 
service they render as to make them simply self- 
sustaining, as one of the parts of the governmental 
machine. 

39 



40 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

Ab initio, there need never exist any government 
whatever if the passions and propensities of men could 
be otherwise controlled. 

If all human beings were philosophers of the intel- 
lectual depth, breadth, and scope of the most erudite 
and profound of the existing sages of the earth, there 
would be no possible need of government — all would 
exist in peace and harmony without ; but each individual 
might be obliged to perform his own manual labor, his 
equally cultured compeers being unwilling to serve. The 
fact is, however, and, fortunately, always will be, that all 
men will not become philosophers ; that if all were at 
birth capable of becoming such, accidents, incidents, 
and occurrences of human life will absolutely prevent. 

Hence, there will be, as there should be, hewers of 
wood and drawers of water, unless the world and its be- 
longings are entirely changed. The most trivial circum- 
stance will frequently change the current of a man's 
whole life, so that he who by heredity might have pos- 
sessed the material and intuitions for a philosophic 
development may have been diverted by an unfortuitous 
combination of human events into some channel that 
would cause him to be a border-ruffian, a barbarian, or 
the cook of a ship. 

Government is not the most desirable institution of 
which one could conceive, for its very existence depends 
upon a certain sacrifice of the inherent rights of the in- 
dividual to the state for the well-being of the whole — for 
the better guaranty of social order. A thing or an institu- 
tion, therefore, that in itself involves a sacrifice is not a 
thing the influence and scope of which we should desire 
to enlarge and extend to the utmost possible limit, but 
such as we should wish to diminish and curtail to within 
the narrowest possible sphere. Not the greatest possible 



PHRONOCRACY 41 

restraint consistent with human endurance, but the 
greatest possible liberty consistent with social order is 
the true principle of government ; and the greater the 
social order and domestic tranquillity that naturally 
pervades the social institutions, the less the necessity 
for government and the more liberal its functions may 
become. 

If, therefore, government is an incubus on society, a 
thing to be shunned not sought, and which is tolerable 
not because of its attractiveness, but of its necessity, 
why should the scope of government be unnecessarily 
enlarged ? 

People yield to the state certain of their individual 
liberties, and by so doing cramp their individual freedom 
and desires, yet it is thought better to yield something so 
as with greater certainty to retain the rest. That policy, 
therefore, which seeks to yield the most is much more in 
conflict with domestic civil liberty than that which yields 
the least. Governments are administered by human in- 
dividuals, and in times gone by those individuals were 
thought to be akin to the Divine. 

Now, however, when all just power is believed to be 
derived from the consent of the governed it follows as a 
necessary corollary that those who are governed least are 
governed best. Formerly a potentate or king, for mo- 
tives and desires wholly his own and for his personal 
aggrandizement and power, could levy imposts and 
collect taxes — even confiscate private property for indi- 
vidual gain. Now there exists no civilized state in which 
the powers of the king are not in a manner prescribed, 
and ere long, as in America, the king will be simply a 
creation of the people — an instrument to perform certain 
duties in conformity with their will. Since the evident 
tendency of civilized life is toward the system which 



42 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

yields the least possible prerogative to the state or the 
king, how could the grievances of the body politic be in 
any degree assuaged by enlarging the scope of govern- 
mental power ? 

The argument in its support is that thus the govern- 
ment would become the distributor of accumulated 
wealth and would deal it out to the people either directly 
by the apportionment of so much to a certain locality or 
state, or by operating enterprises monopolistic in their 
nature at comparatively no charge. Here very naturally 
arises the question, what are monopolistic enterprises 
and what are not ? 

If the government is to own and operate railways 
throughout the country at large, why not the tramways 
in the municipal streets ? If the telegraphic, why not the 
telephonic, wires ; if the canals, why not all country 
roads ; if waterways in general, why not municipal 
water-work systems ? If wires for the transmission of 
electricity for intercommunication, why not for light, 
heat, and power ; if water mains, why not gas mains, and 
if gas and water mains, why not oil mains ; and if oper- 
ating all systems of communication and transportation, 
why not the steamships on the ocean, the boats on inland 
rivers and lakes ; and thus, with a precedent once es- 
tablished, what might the government not do with equal 
reason and justification ? It is obvious that the matter 
would ultimately resolve itself into a multiplicity of 
opinions as to what the government should do and what 
it should not do, so that from this chaos of controversy 
order can only be reached by the universal admission 
that the government must do nothing that can possibly 
be done by individual enterprise, or it must convert 
itself into a gigantic workshop and do everything that 
individuals might do. It is either all government or 



PHRONOCRACY 43 

no government in effect. The determination of what 
should and what should not be operated by govern- 
ment could not be reached by the magnitude of the 
enterprise, because it is found that many municipal 
tramways are of greater size and scope than many over- 
land railways, and that telephonic operations for locali- 
ties reach in the aggregate a sum equal to, if not greater, 
than the overland telegraphic lines ; that many steam- 
boat lines are of greater proportions than corresponding 
railway lines ; in fact, great monopolistic trusts have 
been formed in various lines of ordinary mercantile trade 
that assume vastly greater proportions and are more 
avaricious and grasping, more hurtful to the interests 
of the masses, than are many of the transportation 
companies. Is the government also to absorb and 
operate these because they have become "by nature 
monopolistic " ? To extend its ramification to all pursuits 
that could just as reasonably be considered within the 
power of the government as those relating to transporta- 
tion would deprive individual enterprise of more than a 
moiety of its occupations and make government attaches 
of most of the people. To go this far would be worse 
than not to begin at all or than to absorb everything by 
government. 

It would create an immense and unwieldy govern- 
mental machine, performing much of the labor that 
could be more expeditiously and cheaply performed by 
the individual ; would create an irresistible power in 
patronage that would forever perpetuate the "ins" in 
office, which, as to the ordinary trusts involved, might 
not be so hurtful or disastrous, but would be sufficiently 
cogent in its influences to control legislation and convert 
that grand principle which maintains that the people 
shall rule — that laws are for the people, not the people 



44 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

for the laws — into a hollow mockery and a sham ; in a 
word, it would result in the perversion of the very- 
objects of self-government and a subversion of popular 
rights. If half the people of a country were the em- 
ployes of the government how much better contented 
or better conditioned would the country as a whole be- 
come ? Furthermore, how much better or cheaper would 
the business be transacted ? All experience in civilized 
life goes to show that enterprises operated by the 
government are invariably more inefficiently or more 
expensively conducted than are the same classes of busi- 
ness under private management and control, which if not 
demonstrated by experience would be almost an inevita- 
ble conclusion from ordinary deduction, for in the one 
case they are operated by employes whose labors are 
perfunctory, and in the other by employers under rigid 
discipline for individual gain. There exists not this 
day, nor did there exist at the time of the greatest popu- 
lar interest in governmental control, a single enterprise 
of any description or character that private individuals 
could not have taken at any fair basis of valuation and 
performed the service at ten per cent, less and gained to 
their stockholders ten per cent, more than accrued to 
government in its loose and disjointed control. How 
few municipal water-works systems yield to the city a 
revenue above interest on their cost, aye, how many 
never pay the interest on cost, yet where does or did 
there exist a single water-works plant that private enter- 
prise would not gladly have taken at a disinterested valu- 
ation and agree to supply water to the community at ten 
per cent, less than the price previously paid? In fact, 
it is said that a European syndicate has proposed to buy 
every single water plant both in Europe and America 
that is operated by the public on these identical terms. 



PHRONOCRACY 45 

Water-works in general have been owned by municipali- 
ties, and in general they have lost money. Gas plants 
in general have been operated by individuals, and in 
general they have doubled their capital stock every few 
years. A water-supplying system is far more monopolistic 
in its nature than a gas-supplying system, for there is no 
substitute and can be no competition in water, and there 
can be and is in gas. Water is a necessity and gas is a 
luxury ; gas must be manufactured, hence involves 
much detail ; water is simply pumped and involves no 
detail. 

The price of gas has been relatively as cheap to the 
consumers as has been the current price of water, which 
is proven by the fact that spirited competition has not 
materially reduced rates ; one goes up and the other goes 
down, because one is well managed, the results affecting 
the pockets of private individuals, and the other is con- 
trolled by everybody and is no benefit to anybody. The 
government's business is necessarily everybody's busi- 
ness, and everybody's business is nobody's business, and 
the only sensible course to pursue is to keep out of the 
hands of everybody everything that it is possible to give 
to anybody. But one solitary example of consequence 
can be produced that affords the slightest possible argu- 
ment for governmental enterprise on the score of econo- 
my, and that is no example at all — to wit, the federal 
post-office system of the United States, which, to 1890, 
never paid expenses, never was self-sustaining ; yet, 
when it was suggested that the business be transferred 
to private express companies, the aggregate operations 
of which at that time, in small parcels, extended to almost 
as many localities as the post office itself, any company 
doubtless could, in consideration of a long contract, do 
the business at a less price than the government has 



4.6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

been charging, and would make much, profit where 
the government has been losing. On the score of effi- 
ciency there is no argument, for both are performed by 
men, and a man is usually less, not more, efficient when 
he works for good old Uncle Sam than when laboring 
for the directors of a soulless corporation. Furthermore, 
a conclusive demonstration is found in the efficiency of 
the express and telegraphic systems — both equally and 
almost relatively as cheap as Uncle Sam's letter system. 

A more widespread opinion favoring the control of the 
telegraphic lines of the country by government exists 
than for most any other enterprise ; but then if tele- 
graphs, why not telephones, and so on throughout the 
list? 

However, since it is thought best to retain the trans- 
mission of mail matter in the hands of the government, 
it might be proper that the postal telegraph should also 
be made a part of that particular department. Whilst it 
cannot be doubted that both could be as effectually done 
by private enterprise ; yet conditions might arise when 
the government, in the administration of its functions, 
might require control of this part of the country's busi- 
ness. This, however, could about as reasonably be urged 
regarding transportation in general and many other 
enterprises, so that virtually it may be continued only 
because it has heretofore existed and had done reasonably 
well. 

Much objection, however, is urged to the necessary 
employment by government of the army of postal clerks 
and general attaches, which puts prestige and patronage 
into the hands of the party in power, thus tending to de- 
prive the individual of his natural right. In fact, it will 
soon become almost a fixed principle of popular belief in 
America that the general government should only protect 



PHRONOCRACY 47 

the country from foreign aggression ; preserve the peace, 
and regulate the commerce between, not within, the States ; 
provide and maintain a uniform and stable circulating 
medium ; then provide and maintain collectors of reve- 
nue necessary to carry out these purposes ; and, having 
done this, that the general government will have per- 
formed the major part of its whole duty, leaving to 
States the regulation of all domestic affairs and to cities 
the employment of police ; or, practically and in short, 
that the governmental functions are simply to protect 
life and rightful ownership in individual property, main- 
tain peace, and regulate commerce, obtaining its reve- 
nues to do this from the extraordinary accumulations of 
individual property ; that this and this alone is the right- 
ful function and prerogative of government, and why 
should free men yield more ? So great and irresistible 
may yet be the popular outcry against concentration by 
governments and to the patronage and power exercised 
through federal employes, that postmasters may soon be 
elected by the people of the city or locality in which their 
duties are performed, and all collectors in the districts 
and by the people whose property they assess, taking all 
this patronage out of the hands of the President and 
placing it with the people where it belongs, until this dis- 
tinguished functionary will be shorn or rather relieved 
of many of his duties in the matter of appointments to 
office, which would be far more satisfactory to the incum- 
bent as well as to the people, and being relieved of this 
arduous and unpleasant duty he would devote more time 
to affairs and matters of state. His chief remaining 
appointments would be simply the members of his own 
cabinet, foreign diplomats, and consuls, territorial gov- 
ernors, and judges of the federal courts. 

Everything should tend towards retaining in the hands 



48 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

of the people every possible governmental function, and 
when the ballot has been purified by the only effectual 
method — curtailment, — or by the disfranchisement of the 
unworthy, greater safety and security will rest with the 
people than ever before, and there will be less inclination 
to delegate their powers to officials. 

Governmental control of the leading enterprises of 
the country can be productive of no good result, being 
alike unnecessary and ineffectual ; so likewise is the 
proposition to absorb all business by the government for 
the same identical reasons and for others of greater mo- 
ment and objection, to wit, uselessness and impractica- 
bility. 

This proposition involves primarily the employment 
of the time, energy, and ability of all individuals for 
each other, or, in other words, for a kind of a govern- 
ment, the duty of which is to be the equal distribution 
of the products of human labor ; in a word, all are to 
produce and all are to divide — a Utopian dream, the 
principal merit of which lies in its utter impracticability 
— a scheme suitable either to the gods or to the fishes 
perhaps, equally applicable to both, but of no use to 
man. It will never be seriously considered by any whose 
opinions are worthy of notice. It is a virtual denial of 
man's right to property in his individual capacity, but 
admits an incidental or sort of reversionary right to a 
share in everything. In fact, writers on social questions 
have ceased to deny man's right to property individually, 
which is as unquestionable as his right to breathe air ; 
they have ceased to maintain that he is not entitled to 
the fruits of his labor and to enjoy those fruits however 
he may, in conformity with social restraint ; likewise it 
is admitted that there must and always will, and in fact 
always should be, gradations in society ; that it is utterly 



PHRONOCRACY 49 

impossible to effectually eradicate poverty, which, to a 
certain extent, is a necessary result of the operating 
forces of nature. 

The earth's axis inclines 23^- degrees to the plane of 
the ecliptic, hence there are variable seasons in certain 
zones. 

In the winter some men will be stricken with pneu- 
monia, and in the summer some will be overcome and 
prostrated by the heat ; both conditions are the inevita- 
ble result of nature and its operations, the fault of no 
man nor set of men ; both conditions will incapacitate 
some men for duty, hence some more favored men can 
pass them in the race. But, says an objector, there should 
be no race, no contention, no strife between men ; all 
should exist in fraternity and love, no selfishness, but a 
general acquiescence in the rights of each to all. No 
race, no strife, no contention means no exertion, or uni- 
versal idleness, in which case all would starve. Many 
would rather work than starve, hence they naturally 
object to a division with those who would rather starve 
than work. And thus in ten thousand ways and from 
ten thousand conditions, all natural and unavoidable, to 
say nothing whatever about the inherent qualifications 
and attributes of man as an individual, some are bound 
to fall below the level of the average and some rise above 
it ; and to seek entirely to remedy, or in any considera- 
ble extent to alter this result by legislation, is tanta- 
mount to making the world anew. Man can, however 
be obligated to contribute to the support of society and 
to the maintenance of government in proportion to his 
ability to contribute ; he can be so taxed that when his 
fortune reaches an abnormal excess his payments to the 
state will be equal to the income from his estate, thus 
preventing the useless individual accumulations of the 



50 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

favored and increasing individual opportunity of the 
oppressed. This is all that can be done consistently 
with man's natural right to a reasonable reward for his 
energy, his ability, and his industry ; in fact, it is all that 
justice demands and all that the community should wish. 
Man usually accumulates property in proportion to his 
ability ; it is not therefore unjust that he should con- 
tribute to the support of that governmental institution 
which protects that property in proportion to his ability 
to contribute ; aye more, betimes man's accumulations 
are the result of fortuitous combinations of events, not 
to his skill or energy. These conditions, however, are 
natural, and he should be entitled to a reasonable reward 
therefrom, and since much accumulation is the result of 
these fortunate agencies, less is the discrimination against 
the successful individual when the state interdicts against 
useless excesses, and says that from this excess will I 
support my authority. Tax excess excessively, medioc- 
rity moderately, and poverty not at all, is the correct 
principle of government and of taxation to support it. 
On the other hand, all mankind have the natural right 
to live, by which we mean, to the possession and con- 
sumption of a certain portion of the earth's products, 
essential to the continuance of life. He has this right 
as against the efforts of his fellow-men to the same ex- 
tent that he possesses it as against the contending forces 
of nature, and no more and no less. He cannot exist 
against the contending forces of nature, especially if he 
chooses to inhabit a part of the surface of the earth sub- 
jected to the rigors of an uncongenial clime, without 
effort, and often the most strenuous effort will not avail, 
and he perishes, consequent upon the fault of no man 
or set of men, but by reason of the natural order of 
things. So, likewise, must he exert his efforts in the 



PHRONOCRACY 5 1 

Strife against the opposing forces of his fellow-men, and 
likewise as in his contest with natural obstacles, he 
sometimes perishes, and consequent upon the fault of 
no man or set of men ; and he has asked much of his 
successful rival when he combines with the less success- 
ful and says to the former : " So far shalt thou go and 
no farther" 

He has demanded in this, however, no more than the 
successful rival can well afford to grant ; in fact, to the 
extent of his comfort or his happiness he is in no 
sense oppressed ; his cupidity and his greed alone are 
circumscribed. 

Men being entitled to a reasonable compensation for 
their efforts, does not carry with it the admission that 
they are likewise entitled to an unlimited reward for 
avarice and greed, for much of that gain results from the 
increment forced upon them by the requirements of so- 
ciety, and this increment should, after certain limitations, 
inure to the benefit of as many individuals as possible, 
consistent with public good. 

In keeping with the impracticability of accomplishing 
any practical good to society by the merger of all enter- 
prise into the hands of the government, which is but an 
aggregation of agents of the people to perform certain 
duties, is the legislation that is continuously being 
enacted looking to the regulation of freights, traffics, 
and the like, by governmental authority. The general 
government can regulate commerce between the States, 
that is, it can prevent any embargo being placed upon 
the products of one by another in transit over their 
respective boundaries ; it can prevent States from in- 
stituting any sort of prohibitory conditions as between 
each other, but it cannot regulate the traffic within the 
boundaries of the State itself. This duty or privilege is 



52 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

reserved to the State legislators, and their enactments 
are sometimes unwise and detrimental to the public 
weal. It would not answer in all the States to prescribe 
a certain fixed rate beyond which no charge should be 
made, for in some localities a price equal to five cents 
per mile for each and every first-class passenger would 
be cheap, and in some others a price in excess of two 
cents would be high ; hence if any limitations are made 
they must usually be so high as to effect no practical 
good, and had as well not exist. The construction of 
railways and highways, canals and waterways, in some 
sections of the country is comparatively cheap, and in 
others very high. Many times in different sections of 
the same State the cost would be more than quadrupled, 
so that a legislative enactment to the effect that the price 
of all traffic within the State must not exceed a certain 
stipulated rate would be in excess of what one company 
might desire to charge, and not sufficient for the actual 
maintenance of another. The average cost of railway 
construction in Nebraska or Kansas is much below that 
in Colorado or Nevada, for the former are located in a 
broad and level country, and the latter in the precipitous 
rocks and crags of mountain gorges. It has Usually been 
the custom to prescribe a maximum, but this is frequently 
above the actual charge for transportation. People resi- 
dent in any section must have facilities for transportation, 
otherwise their land is valueless and their unconsumed 
crop will rot ; hence it is that in nearly all sections the 
socialistic principle of maintaining public wagon roads 
prevails, not because the people believe in socialism 
in the abstract, or would be willing to have their 
land taxed for many other schemes in the nature of a 
general divide, but because it appears to be to the in- 
terest of the property itself to have it so — that is, by sub- 



PHRONOCRACY 53 

mitting to a tax to maintain a public road (which is 
about the same in principle as submitting to a tax to 
maintain a public hotel), their land appears to gain more 
in value than the tax really costs. The road, therefore, 
being supported or rather operated by government, and 
individuals who have no property and pay no tax being 
permitted to use it as freely as those who pay the most, 
seems to be a great concession to the socialistic senti- 
ment, yet it appears as though the tax-payer is more than 
recompensed by the increased valuation of the land con- 
sequent thereon. Well, say the government absorption- 
ists, if it be to the interest of the tax-paying landowner 
to maintain the public road, why would it not be more 
largely to his interest to establish lines of free carriages 
on said road, so that the socialistic principle as to trans- 
portation could be carried out to its fulness ? And if to 
his interest to maintain highways and establish carriages 
thereon, to be supported by taxation on his property, 
and for the free use of the public, why with equal reason 
might it not be to the interest of the landowner to con- 
struct and maintain a line of railway, and establish free 
carriages thereon, which condition rendered to its ulti- 
mate end would mean governmental control of all trans- 
portation ; and if of transportation, which in value 
amounts to about one fifth of the whole and employs 
about one tenth of all the people, why not of everything 
else ? In other words, why should the people not create 
agents to do the business of the country and distribute 
the profits if there be any, and, if none, then give to each 
man so much food and raiment and let him go on his 
way rejoicing ? Thus there appears to be some enter- 
prises in which the socialistic principle does operate to 
advantage, such as the maintenance of free wagon roads 
and streets, free parks, free schools, free poorhouses, 



54 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

hospitals, and the like, and the reason why it should ap- 
pear to work well to within their limitations — in fact, 
appear to be necessary to this extent — and yet iniquitous 
to any extent beyond, is because further governmental 
control thwarts individual enterprise. The fact is that 
society is obliged to recognize the socialistic principle to 
some extent, but this offers no argument for its univer- 
sality ; but it is clear to the minds of far-sighted men that 
if something is not done to check the colossal and use- 
less accumulations of individual property, the socialistic 
principle may be very largely extended, and it is best 
to meet the issue at once and favor the said principle out- 
right to the extent of annihilating all excesses, and curtail- 
ing it as much as possible as regards all mediocrities, with 
sedulous care not to stifle enterprise. To impose a limit 
on traffic or to create other restrictive conditions is in fact 
to a certain extent a barrier to enterprise, and it is really 
questionable whether or not to permit the matter to regu- 
late itself would not result in the end in greater develop- 
ment and consequently greater competition, hence better 
and cheaper accommodation, than to attempt to protect 
the people by controlling even the maximum of charges. 
In some sections of country the residents would gladly 
agree to pay ten cents per mile for ordinary railway pas- 
senger traffic rather than to have no line of road ; in 
fact, it is questionable if the residents of any country 
would dispense with same altogether if the rate should 
be double that sum. In America in 1890 there existed 
about 167,000 miles of railway — more than all the world 
besides combined, — yet crops could not at times be prop- 
erly transported. Now, by permitting capital to con- 
struct roads and charge for the use of same their own 
stipulated rate (being common carrier the same, of 
course, to all under similar condition), granting no privi- 



PHRONOCRACY 55 

leges and imposing no restraints, it might be that in 
every belt of country in America twenty miles wide there 
would be a line of road running both north and south, 
east and west. The distance between the oceans aver- 
aging, say, for a short calculation, 3,000 miles, and the 
width north and south is 2,000 miles, there would be 
on the 20-mile basis, 100 lines of road 3,000 miles long, 
or 300,000 miles, running east and west ; and 150 lines 
2,000 miles long, or 300,000 miles, running north and 
south ; or in all 600,000 miles of road, and none nearer 
to the other than twenty miles apart, which would be 
ten miles from the central tracts of land to the nearest 
road — which, with a loaded team, is a fair average dis- 
tance to haul a load of produce and return the same day 
over a fair highway in good repair. Since access to 
facilities for communication appears to be the great pro- 
moter of values, it is a question whether or not, all 
things considered, as much good would not result from 
the multiplication of those facilities, superinduced by the 
ability to regulate their own rates, as by a diminution of 
same consequent upon legal interdictions, thus permit- 
ting the laws of trade to regulate the price of traffic. 

Who can say that it would not be better for an entire 
country to have two lines of railroad twenty miles apart, 
charging ten cents per mile, than one line, charging but 
five cents per mile, forty miles off. Perhaps both could 
comfortably live at ten cents, and one would grow very 
rich at five, but the average haul over the highway which 
in the case of the two would be, say, ten miles, in case of 
the one is twenty miles. If wagoning over country roads 
cost fifty cents per mile (about a proportionate rate), it 
is clear that a haul of but ten miles to a ten-cent road 
would enable the goods to be transported some distance 
at even that rate before the actual outlay from farm to 



56 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

market would be much greater than on the five cent 
road, where the goods were wagoned twenty miles at 
fifty cents per mile. 

These matters should be fully discussed, as also social- 
istic highways, socialistic schools, parks, and the like, 
and it may be determined that it is best to let natural 
conditions, not in conflict with the general plan of cur- 
tailing excesses of individual estates, prevail at least for 
a while till it can be demonstrated whether or not in 
adopting generally and fundamentally the principle and 
policy of go vernmen tally regulating the extremes of for- 
tune, there would not be interference sufficient to enable 
the people to dispense with some of the other features 
long existing in communities and recognized as valid. 
Relative to all socialistic tendencies and all schemes for 
the absorption by government of individual enterprises, 
it may be safely said that the least possible is the. best. 
Socialism as applied to individual excesses is the most 
reasonable and least oppressive of any, and that alone 
should prevail in lieu of all that can possibly be dis- 
pensed with. Absorption of enterprise by government 
is not only impracticable, but is in fact simply the turn- 
ing over by the people to the people and then turning 
back by the people to the people, or, by the people to 
their agents (the people) and by the agents (the people) 
back to the people, the usufruct of labor, making no 
allowance for individual excellence, energy, opportunity, 
or desire, which is as much in conflict with nature as it 
would be to say that all trees shall grow to the same uni- 
form size. Let the tree expand reasonably, but if it gets 
so big as to be useless in itself and threaten destruction 
to the forest it would be wise to trim it up a little. 

Then comes on a great and apparently endless discus- 
sion as to the maintenance of public schools. 

It is urged that this exercise of the socialistic princi- 



PHRONOCRACY 57 

pies is useless ; that, in fact, it is injurious ; that it 
creates an artificial equality that is hurtful rather than 
beneficial to society ; that it unfits many for occupations 
that must be pursued by some ; that it creates in these 
an increasing discontent, and enables them to more 
keenly appreciate and more deeply to lament the grada- 
tions in society which must exist until everything as- 
sumes a different footing, or ? say, until the world begins 
to turn the other way and the sun to revolve around the 
earth ; but that whilst things are as they are gradations 
cannot and should not be prevented, and that to educate 
the masses is a step in that direction which on the whole 
is not proper ; that in fact and in truth, 

From ignorance our comfort flows. 
The only wretched are the wise. 

It is maintained on the other hand that education 
makes men less passionate and vicious ; that they are in 
consequence more easily controlled ; that it prevents 
crime and outrage by enabling people to understand the 
enormity of it ; that on the whole it is worth more to 
property to have an educated populace than an unedu- 
cated one ; that the tendency towards disqualification 
and unfitness for certain occupation will be offset by in- 
creased compensation ; that professors of colleges will 
clean the streets or remove the garbage for a certain 
compensation ; that menial occupations would command 
high prices rather than degrade workmen, and so on ad 
infinitum. The other side maintains that a little educa- 
tion is worse than none at all ; that it makes of what 
would otherwise be a mild pilferer in the street a bold 
and defiant counterfeiter and forger — a character more 
difficult to control and, by reason of his greater ability, 
more dangerous to society ; that if you would keep the 
people in subjugation you must keep them in ignorance ; 



58 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

that ascendancy in all institutions will flourish most 
where the masses know the least. 

Thus by these divergent views the free-school system 
may be in some sections abandoned according as the 
majority in localities, by which alone the institution 
should be governed, should decide. However, in most 
States and counties of the United States and later on in 
other countries which have intermittently encouraged 
and abandoned it, the institution will likely be supported 
to such an extent as will enable the attendants to learn to 
read, write, and cipher, or what may be considered the 
" citizenship course," and nothing beyond. It should 
become law that man must both possess something and 
know something before he could participate in govern- 
ment — (strange that he should ever have participated in it 
otherwise) ; and since the opportunity would be before 
him to possess the requisite amount of property which he 
could do in a few years by frugality and economy, espe- 
cially since the main contributions for the support of 
government are proposed to be taken from accumulated 
property and are by reason thereof scarcely perceptible 
to the poor or the intermediacy, so likewise is it thought 
best, all things considered, to give him an opportunity 
to acquire the other requisite, to wit, a certain amount 
of knowledge, so that he who should become a citizen 
might if he would. 

Beyond these limitations, however, there should be the 
most rigid scrutiny and the closest possible guard against 
the extension of delegated powers or socialistic operations, 
the former confined essentially to security to property, and 
the latter to the actual and self-evident needs of the social 
state and to the limitation of excesses caused by the in- 
crease of population and the utilization of those excesses 
for the support of the state — rather " Conservative Social- 
ism or Phronocracy." " Aut Phronocracy aut Nullus." 



CHAPTER IV. 

Single or land tax considered : sincerity of its advocates — " The world 
belongs in usufruct to the people," correct in the abstract — Origi- 
nal possession : how acquired — Right of original possession — 
Land the product of labor — Impracticability of "uninterrupted 
access to natural opportunity " — Tax to full rental value tanta- 
mount to confiscation, and less fails of the object sought — Not 
justified by simplicity ; generally impracticable and void of good 
effect — Relief only secured by laws oppressing the favored and 
assisting the oppressed. 

Before entering into detail as to the means, methods, 
and circumstances under and by virtue of which the 
" Phronocratic-Conservative " alliance is proposed to be 
formed and the discussions of the principles supported 
b}' same, there arises for consideration another and 
by no means unimportant propagandism that has been 
promulgated and supported by men of intelligence and 
thought — to wit : the Single or Land Tax proposition. 

This class of reformers aim, as do all, at the greatest 
good to the greatest number. They recognize to the 
fullest extent that man is entitled to the fruits of his own 
labor ; that he possesses a natural right to own and enjoy 
any property that results from the labor of his hand 
or his brain, and that he is entitled to an effectual guar- 
anty to the peaceful and uninterrupted possession of 
that property. Hence the single-tax advocates can by 
no means be classed among those who in any way seek 
to institute a condition of anarchy in society, or to forci- 

59 



6o POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

bly dispossess any man of the fruits of his toil ; and, con- 
sequently, as a party that aims by the enactments of law 
and by methods peaceful and persuasive to institute cer- 
tain changes in human affairs that would, in their opinion, 
ameliorate the condition of the masses of human beings, 
they are entitled to and should receive the utmost con- 
sideration and respect. Their views are discussed and 
their pronunciaments elaborated ; in a word, such has 
become the condition of society that no sect or class that 
tends toward revolution and force will be in any sense 
tolerated. The intellectual development of the world is 
such that all who seek to dispose have first to propose, 
and any proposition affects no disposition unless it is 
supported and upheld by the most forcible and reasona- 
ble arguments — or, in other words, brain rule, not brawn ; 
there is no force except that of convincing and irrefutable 
arguments. 

The single-tax advocates, with great reason, claim that 
the " world belongs in usufruct to the people " ; that all 
men are entitled to " equal access to natural opportu- 
nity " ; that natural opportunity is the earth and its 
belongings. 

When jocosely asked, " What do you want ? " they 
appropriately reply, "We want the earth — our natural 
inheritance." 

Land is considered the gift of God to the people, as is 
water and also air. Since the natural right of access to 
water and air have not as yet been denied, why should 
access to land, an equally important element of human 
existence, be withheld ? Man cannot live without earth, 
air, and water ; in fact, some individuals of the material- 
istic faith espouse the belief that man is nothing else 
than a combination of material forms — a highly-devel- 
oped protoplasm, a mollusk, a fish, a bird, a mammal, a 



PHRONOCRACV 6 1 

monkey, a man — animate yet wholly material, a result 
and not a design j that the earth is inhabited, why ? be- 
cause the sun's heat, the land and water, all co-existent 
if not ever-existent, aided by action, motion, force (which 
implies energy), all of which exist as an accompaniment 
of the great whole (but why or how no man knoweth), 
produces something, and that something is the vegetable 
and animal life of which man is but a part. We ask, 
"Are the planets of our own system similarly in- 
habited ? " Certainly not, if by inhabitants we mean 
things and beings identical to and in keeping with our- 
selves. The actinic agencies of nature there may — 
doubtless do — produce something, just as similar agen- 
cies here may have produced what we see all around us, 
but who knows what, how, or in what shape it has been 
manifested ? It is by no means the same as here, be- 
cause the conditions are radically different. Who knows, 
or is prepared to absolutely prove, that man is not a 
result of the actinic forces of nature and has assumed 
the form he has and the attributes and characteristics he 
possesses, because such form, such attributes, and such 
characteristics are the fittest, most appropriate, and 
most reasonable, all things considered. But why di- 
gress ? Our object is to delineate what is happening 
in the world among its people, come or originate and 
ultimately end howsoever they may. The single-tax 
advocates seek to place all tax on land values, reliev- 
ing every other kind and class of property from any 
contribution whatever to the support of government ; 
they seek in effect to make the amount of this tax equal 
to the rental or productive return of the property. They 
confine all assessment to land values essentially, to the 
lot on which the house is erected, not to the house itself 
or its belongings ; to the farm directly as soil and dirt 



62 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

only, not to the houses, the fences, and the barns. The 
reason why everything save land is to be exempt from 
taxation, is because improvements of all kinds are the 
product of labor, and that to tax labor's product is, they 
say, to discourage and oppress the exercise of its ener- 
gies, to place an incubus on development, and corre- 
spondingly hamper enterprise. 

They also maintain that any man is entitled to hold 
land in use ; that to tax land to its full rental value 
would make it undesirable, yea, unprofitable, if not 
utterly impossible, to hold it out of use at all, and that 
if no one held, then all who wished could occupy and 
use ; hence, the means would always be at hand by 
which man could exert his energies, or, in other words, 
he would then have uninterrupted access to natural op- 
portunity — the consummation not only devoutly to be 
wished, but the remedy for all wretchedness. If a man 
could not obtain employment in a shop at a satisfactory 
remuneration he could become independent of the shop- 
keeper by entering in upon and cultivating any patch of 
land which would be open to his exertions, unless actu- 
ally in use by some of his fellows ; if a man wished 
to build a house he should be permitted to enter upon 
and possess any vacant city lot not actually utilized, and 
so on to the end ; land not in use could be used by any 
one, just as water not drank and air not breathed could 
be used by any one — a happy contemplation, but a 
remote and impracticable realization, with nothing in it 
save a barren idea, nothing save a Utopian dream — a 
wild phantasmagoric vision, that vanishes ere it 's fully 
seen. 

To begin at the beginning : How did man become 
possessed of landed estate ? We will assume for illus- 
tration that the ancient and presumably sunken island of 



PHRONOCRACY 63 

Atlantis, alluded to in Bacon's allegorical fiction, (rich in 
productiveness by reason of its long inundation) should 
suddenly emerge from the bottom of the sea. Supposed 
to have been located somewhere north of the equitorial 
Atlantic it would be in easy position of access, and, 
being fertile and productive and located 'neath friendly 
skies and surrounded by balmy air, it would naturally 
become the modern Eldorado — the promised land, the 
haven of untold wealth for the myriads who toil. 

We will suppose that John Smith and Joe Jones first 
discovered it, then to whom does it belong ? Well, we 
will suppose that, being God-risen (certainly not man- 
risen) from the depths of the sea, it belongs when dis- 
covered to certain amphibians that are found to infest it. 
It cannot be denied that this title to it would be as good 
as the title of any other of God's creatures. Do the jun- 
gles of Africa belong to the monkeys of God's creation, 
or do they not ? Does the land belong to the aborigines 
who first inhabit it, or does it not ? Yes, it belongs to its 
first occupants, which were in all probability a low order 
of vegetables, then later each tree owned its quota, and 
since it had not the faculty of locomotion but was able 
to draw its sustenance from the land and air immediately 
around and from the rains that showered on it from the 
clouds, it would, if it could have uttered sound and 
expressed what we call thought, doubtless have said : " I 
am content ; I have enough. All I have to request of 
my fellow-creatures is that they will keep at a respect- 
able distance so as not to tax the sustaining capacity of 
my little plot of land through which my roots interlace 
and ramify." Later on come the beavers and gnaw down 
the trees in a certain area of country adjacent to the 
water brooks, and use their trunks and branches for the 
construction of dams, which they chink with mud. To 



64 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

whom does the denuded land then belong ? Certainly 
to the beaver ; and it then has no other or greater value 
than that represented by the beaver in gnawing down 
the trees. Later come some gigantic and powerful 
herbivora and begin to eat the grass and the bushes and 
to render the country unfit for the uses of the beaver, 
and, being more powerful, possess themselves of it. 
Later, through a multiplicity of epochs, came primordial 
man, and he took control of all simply because he could. 
Then the strongest races and tribes of men, to the extent 
that they desired, dispossessed the weaker and possessed 
themselves of the land, just because they could. Later 
the sword and cannon of the so-called civilian over- 
came the bow and arrow of the so-called savage, just 
because they were more powerful and could. 

The sword and the cannon acquired as just and as 
equitable a title from the bow and arrow as the bow and 
arrow did from the teeth and claws of the beast, and 
thus force was of necessity law — might was right until 
some social system was established by which the wants 
and desires of men multiplied, and for the good of the 
whole individuals consented to be governed. Civiliza- 
tion and the migration of man from the lands and climes 
in which he originally had his being caused diversifica- 
tion of wants, and diversification caused division in pro- 
duction, and division in production caused trade and 
exchange, and trade and exchange caused profits, and 
profits caused accumulation, and so on to the end. But 
to revert : If the resurrected island of Atlantis belonged, 
not to the man or men who discovered it, but to the 
amphibians that were found on it, because they are of 
God's creation, how long would it be before by the 
rightful exercise of superior force some stronger animal, 
possibly and for the sake of argument we will say ele- 



PHRONOCRACY 65 

phants, would drive off or kill out the amphibians, and if 
they desired to do so, graze exclusively on the succulent 
grass of the newly acquired pastures ? How long there- 
after, by superior force, would it be before man would 
drive off the elephants if he should choose to do so ? 
Therefore the man who has the title by force has the 
rightful titie when civilization, or call it what you may, 
was in such a state or condition as to have recognized no 
higher arbiter. 

When the higher arbitrament was instituted succession 
to possession might proceed under it, but original titles 
are none the less good for all that. The title that comes 
straight down from the original patent or grant of the 
king, if the king had the title (even though by force 
whilst force was custom and law), is the best title to-day, 
and it is a just title. 

To argue that man is not entitled to landed estates to- 
day that have become valuable by reason of the increased 
and increasing demands of modern civilization, because 
when they were worth nothing save the effort of the crow 
or eagle in flying over them, their remote ancestors be- 
came the possessors by the highest recognized right of 
the time and at the highest price (be that price force) 
that any one was willing to or could pay, is wholly un- 
tenable except on the hypothesis that no land should be 
owned save by God himself, whatever idea that expres- 
sion may convey. Why should land not be owned ? It 
is unquestionably, though God-given as the single-tax 
men put it, subject to improvement by labor and to de- 
terioration by neglect, just the same as all other property, 
and more so than much other property. They admit that 
man is entitled to own and enjoy the products of his 
own labor, yet if a man should devote a lifetime of toil 
to the reclamation of a tract of land from a marsh near 



66 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

the sea, or remove rocks from another on the slopes of a 
hill, or carry water to another in the heart of the desert 
— all absolutely worthless without that labor, and the 
only value they subsequently possess is admittedly the 
product of that labor, — yet because that labor-product 
created land (which it did, because to the extent that it 
could have been or was available before the application 
of labor it was not land at all) and not bricks or but- 
tresses or bridges, it should not be owned, or, which is 
practically the same, it should be taxed to its rental 
value so as to make it undesirable or useless property, is 
a proposition that appears inconsistent, untenable, and 
ridiculous. Again, if instead of applying his labor to the 
reclamation of lands from the sea, the deserts, or the 
hills, he had devoted his life to any ordinary avocation, 
and as a result of his labor he had amassed wealth to the 
amount, we will assume, of $10,000, and from motives of 
safety or individual preference, or for any reason what- 
ever, he had chosen to invest that wealth or labor- 
product in land that some other man had reclaimed or 
occupied, would not the tract purchased be as much the 
fruit of his toil as the wealth in whatever pre-existing 
form he had it was the fruit of his toil ? Where the 
demand for land is less than the available supply, it is 
virtually open for occupancy and use by any one who 
desires. One hundred and sixty acres of land are 
available to any American citizen, and when population 
was sparse many a desirable claim was located ; but as 
said population became denser, the available or desirable 
tracts were located until those that are left are either 
sterile or unproductive to a degree that makes it more 
desirable to buy, or, in other words, to exchange the 
products of labor for a tract that some other man has 
previously located than to take the available tract for 



PHRONOCRACY 6j 

nothing ; or, if the man desiring land has nothing to 
represent labor-product to give in exchange, he prefers 
to remain in some thickly populated city where he can 
sell his labor by the day or beg an existence from the 
populace, than to go and take up such land as remains 
available, as much does to this day. All who own land 
(save those who inherited it from their ancestors) in the 
general sifting out of the thing will be found to have paid 
or given labor-products for it to about the measure of its 
value at the time ; if not so, then some other man would 
have given more and he would have possessed it. Even 
the man who inherits succeeds to a title for which value 
has been given by his sire or his grandsire, and if these 
sires had a right to their own they should have the right 
to dispose of their own. All land is practically in some 
sort of use in all countries where life abounds. If a man 
owns ten thousand acres in the State of Dakota, around 
which he chooses to build a wire fence for the very pur- 
pose of keeping off cattle that would otherwise consume 
his grass, this cannot be said to be actually out of use, 
for the very apparent idleness to which he seems to con- 
sign it is perhaps the very best use to which he can put 
it, for the reason that the falling and decaying grass en- 
riches the soil, thereby creating a greater yield when he 
chooses to turn it over with a plow, if to use it thus is in 
turn any greater use in fact than the previous apparent 
idleness. But, says the single-tax man, he is holding 
land for speculative increase which if thrown open to the 
people would be used by being worked with a hoe in- 
stead of being used to grow grass to make the labor with 
the hoe subsequently yield more. Yes, he is holding it, 
though really perhaps in the best possible use ; we will 
say, for argument, that it is for speculative increase. 
We will of course conclude that, when, by reason of 



68 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

cheaper competitive lands being brought nearer to the 
market by better facilities for transportation than pre- 
viously existed, the value of his land is reduced one 
half, he should rightfully call upon the state to make 
good his losses. I have given, he might say, the 
product of my labor to the extent of $ 10,000 for that 
land, and to-day no man will give me the product of 
labor to the extent of $5,000, and I want the difference 
from the state. Equally reasonable would be this de- 
mand with that from the state to take away not only any 
possible gain but his land itself by taxation tantamount 
to confiscation. How untenable the proposition. 

It is said that if blows are aimed at an inflated blad- 
der they should not be too severe, or the lack of resist- 
ance will dislocate the shoulder. But, say the single-tax 
men, the condition practically will be about the same as 
at present, because the people will be on the land as 
now and be entitled to its products to the extent that 
they use it by their labor. Well, if practically the same, 
then better leave it as it now is. 

But how would the land be occupied ? If open to all, 
of course the tracts nearest to the markets and most con- 
veniently located as regards facilities for transportation 
would be entered upon first. There might be a grand 
scramble for Central Park, New York, and for the highly 
rich and verdant fields of the interior of the State of 
New York, and for the alluvial plains of the Ohio and 
Mississippi valleys, but soon they would be engaged, and 
the unfortunate who failed to get his allotment there 
would finally conclude that rather than take it where he 
could get it he would accept a dollar per day cleaning 
streets. Then again, who is to determine what consti- 
tutes use, or what amount one man may rightfully use ? 
To this was answered, just whatever he will use. Some 



PHRONOCRACY 69 

man might claim that he was using one thousand acres 
by permitting it to grow up in grass, and object to the 
occupancy of any part of it by the man who wanted to 
grow potatoes. 

It would be necessary to have a general inspector 
appointed, or, in other words, a " use or non-use arbi- 
trator," whose edicts would have to be supreme, and at 
times he would find it necessary to employ military force 
to eject a non-user and inject a supposed user. But the 
supposed non-user would say : " Hay is more useful this 
year than potatoes, because there was a plethora of pota- 
toes grown last year, which have been largely buried, 
canned, and made into salads ; and a large part of the 
hay crop of last year rotted in the stack, was put up 
moist and heated in the barn, so that people need hay 
for their horses, and it is better to use land for that 
thing which the people want than for that thing of which 
they possess a redundance already. Furthermore, I have 
hay-seed, and I must have ground to sow it on. I 
have mowers to cut, rakes to gather, and forks to stack ; 
and with these implements and my labor I can handle 
all the crop this ground will produce. Then I have four 
boys, all of whom till this year have been going to 
school ; now two have finished — that is, they have gone 
to school as long as I can afford to send them — longer 
than I ever went myself, — and this year, and from now 
on, they must work and earn their salt, and we need all 
this land, every foot of it, and next year we will use 
more. And then there is Sallie, she is going to get mar- 
ried next Christmas, and the probability is that I will 
have to take care of her husband, that he will live with 
us, and, while I*will do what is right by him, yet he has 
got to pitch in the same as myself and the boys, so we 
will want to use several acres more on that account. 



JO POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

Then just over there lives Bill Smith ; one of his best 
working chaps died last summer, so that he cannot use 
what he worked last year ; I should have a slice off of 
him." 

Thus in practice there would unavoidably arise ques- 
tions and contentions as to use, in the proper and right- 
ful signification of the term, and non-use ; disputes as 
to who should occupy the most desirable and most 
accessible, and who the least desirable and most remote. 
Again, to tax land alone and to exempt all other 
property would work a monstrous injustice to a number 
of worthy citizens and insure an unwarranted benefit to 
twice or thrice as many more. To derive all revenue 
from land by collecting everything from it that is needed 
for governmental support simply and solely because land 
is open to the scrutiny of all eyes and cannot be 
secreted, or, in other words, just because from land the 
process of collection and assessment would be simpler, 
expecting that the landowner would be recompensed by 
an increased price for his products, is a proposition 
altogether different from that which proposes to tax 
land to, or near to, its rental value, for the very purpose 
of opening it out for use by the public. If simplicity in 
assessments and collections is the end to be attained, 
the desideratum sought, the panacea for human ills, then 
why not make it simple and tax every human head one 
hundred dollars per year, or one hundred cents, as the 
needs of government may require. 

The head cannot be secreted in the sand, like that of 
an ostrich, and held there long enough to escape the 
visuals of the assessor. 

Since taxation to full rental value is tantamount to 
confiscation, and since to dispossess a man of the prod- 
ucts of his labor appears ridiculously inconsistent and 



PHRONOCRACY J\ 

absurd, we will treat for a time that view of the subject 
which ,aims at taxation on land on account of simplicity 
in assessment and collection and the non-secretiveness 
of its character, refraining from urging against this view 
of the case the conclusive and incontrovertible argu- 
ment that head lax is simpler and even less subject to 
secretiveness, because there can be no dispute as to values. 

The value of all property in the United States, as per 
census of 1880, was forty-four billion dollars, of which 
farm land represented about ten billion, or one fourth 
the total valuation. To this we will add one twelfth the 
whole for the valuation of city lots, exclusive of the im- 
provements, and call the value in 1880 of that class of 
property which alone the single-tax men propose to list, 
one third the whole, or, say, fourteen billion dollars. 

In most sections of the country farms are taxed for 
State, county, school, and road purposes, on an average 
of one and one half per cent. City property, houses 
and personalty as well as lots, is taxed on the average 
about two per cent., which, to produce the same revenue 
on the valuation of the land and lots only, would have 
certainly to be doubled, so that to produce revenue 
exclusive of that required by the federal government an 
assessment would be required, doubtless quite equal to 
three per cent, on the average. The requirements of the 
federal government properly administered are about 
three hundred million, to derive which from a valuation 
of fourteen billion would require a levy of a little over 
two per cent, making a total of at least five per cent, on 
the valuation of 1880. Land pays well that yields five 
per cent., hence such a levy would be tantamount to 
confiscation, or the producing power of land would have 
to be materially increased. How could its net producing 
power be increased, or, in other words, how could the 



72 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

profits of labor on soil be greater, unless operatives were 
forced to work for a lower price, or unless its produce 
commanded a higher price ? Why oblige the farm 
laborer to work for less or the consumers of farm 
products to pay more, just for the sake of simplicity in 
assessment and collection and to avoid secretiveness^ 
when by applying a direct head tax both simplicity and 
non-secretiveness are more effectually secured without 
any such useless discrimination ? Values of lands and 
city lots have not since 1880 averaged very far from 
about one third the property of the country, and it goes 
without saying that, if all revenue is taken from one 
third the valuation, the rate must be trebled. If the 
rate on land is trebled, the land is in consequence no 
richer, and will yield no greater crop with the same 
labor. Hence the result is inevitable that the cost of 
production must be diminished or the price of products 
advanced. There could be no wisdom, therefore, in 
changing existing conditions as to taxation on the 
grounds of simplicity — certainly not by the adoption 
of a simple plan which works an injury when there is a 
simpler one that works none. To tax land as proposed 
to any less amount than that which is tantamount to 
confiscation, effects no result save a certain degree of 
simplicity, which as shown has its penalties, tending 
in no degree to open land for general occupancy to all 
who would use. The single-tax men really propose and 
mean to confiscate landed property, if they mean to 
accomplish any result whatever, for the simple shifting 
of taxes off other things to land for the sake of simplicity 
is meaningless, objectless, and useless, and, working as 
it does a great discrimination, is objectionable, wrong, 
ridiculous, and absurd. 

Governments are instituted and maintained for the 



PHRONOCRACY 73 

protection of life and property ; hence all of that thing 
which is protected, to wit property, should bear its 
share of the burthen — not land alone or any other 
thing alone. 

Then, instead of calling themselves single- or land- 
tax-only advocates, the proper term to have applied 
is " land confiscationists" for that in fact and in effect 
is just what they desire, otherwise how could "equal 
access to natural opportunity " be obtained? The sin- 
gle-tax men look upon the appellation of land confis- 
cationists as an opprobrium from which they shrink, 
though they are obliged to admit that this and this alone 
in fact and truth they are, just as the Democrats called 
themselves " tariff reformers," when "free-traders" as 
soon as it can safely be reached (be it said to their 
credit), in fact and in truth they are. The land con- 
fiscationists send their orators abroad into the land to 
proclaim the truth to the masses. The farmers are 
appealed to in persuading tones to join the band and 
free the land. 

Aid us in confiscating your farms to the state (though 
of course with these words slightly sugar-coated), and 
we will exempt you from all other taxation ; you need 
not pay one dollar for duties on imports, nor a farthing 
for tax on beer ; you will therefore be enabled to buy 
your clothing cheaper, have your horses shod cheaper, 
drink your grog on a cold winter night cheaper, and so 
to the end of the list, but you must sacrifice or confiscate 
(sugar-coated) your farms. 

"Well," said the sage old rusticuses, "that may be 
very good for those who have no farm ; they can be 
liberal, but we have been able to raise enough potatoes 
to buy these things, and we can see no sense in giving 
up our farms in order that we may get other things a little 



74 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

cheaper. Even if the state would promise to give us 
everything for nothing, we would rather keep the farms. 
If you have got a scheme by which taxation can be taken 
off the land entirely, we are ready to help you out ; but 
to agree to aid you in making land sustain the whole 
load, we believe we would rather pass." In Australia 
the land-tax idea began to take root, but it was soon ob- 
served that, to the extent that such a system sought to 
accomplish anything but simplicity in assessment and 
collection and avoidance of secretiveness, it was illusory 
and absurd — a fiseudo-bleptic phantomnation. 

There is no greater reason why land which is prop- 
erty should be owned by the state and open to occupancy 
to all, when there is any person or being who is willing 
to pay the product of labor for it, than there is for sub- 
jecting all other property to the same identical condi- 
tions, which is communism, plain and simple, without the 
conservative balance. 

When governments hold unoccupied lands, as is the 
case in Australia, where the sentiment took root, and in 
America, some years ago, it is of course policy to in- 
vite in occupants ; but when these conditions as to land 
exist, the pre-emption, settlement, and pioneer occupa- 
tion are about the full measure of its value. When 
population increases, and roads and churches and 
school-houses and fences are built, then land has an 
increased value, and should become possessed or owned 
only at that increased value, and this was not the case 
originally when pioneership paid for it amply and well. 
The land confiscationists, when forced at times to 
lick the sugar off their pills, admit that practically they 
are what they are ; yet they claim that there is no injus- 
tice in it. Many kinds and classes of property they say 
are ruthlessly destroyed in the prevailing rage for inno- 



PHRONOCRACY 75 

vation, and by the invention or substitution of something 
that suits the purposes of civilization better, and if it 
suited civilization better to confiscate the land, why not 
with equal reason and equal justice adopt that policy, as 
well as to have adopted the railway carriage in place 
of the old stage-coach ; that the introduction of the 
car practically confiscated the coach, and no one ques- 
tioned the policy of the proceeding ; that whatever a 
majority of the people wish must be law, if it be to live 
on nothing but moonshine, and if enough of them 
could continue to live to enforce such a law, it would 
be enforced. 

It is of course undeniable that the majority should and 
must rule, but it will be a long time and a cold day 
before a majority is to be found who w T ill pass a law to 
the effect that every individual should commit hari- 
kari or hang for a week by his toes. If a majority 
should say, " We will confiscate land," then so be it ; 
but he who waits to see it will live beyond a century. 
The argument that property is daily confiscated by the 
substitution of something better than the old, reacts 
upon itself, and is completely answered when we say, 
" Make available to man or cause to exist a substitute for 
land that is better than land, and the natural course of 
events and not confiscation schemes — the failure of the 
unfittest to survive — will work its abandonment." No 
legislator ever proclaimed that the stage-coach should 
become common property ; if so, he would have been 
unwise and revolutionary ; but it served its time in the 
march of life, and succumbed to a fitter machine when 
natural causes made it so, and likewise, and to the same 
extent and with equal justice, will land succumb when 
in the march of the world's affairs something fitter can 
survive. 



j6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

To say that you shall not own land is one thing, and 
to produce a substitute that people would rather own is 
quite another ; a blind man might almost see the utter 
folly, irrelevancy and absurdity of their position, so plain 
is it. 

Aside from the access to land for the purposes of 
agriculture, there is the mineral and metallic feature to 
be considered. The living of all, in some shape, comes 
out of the ground. A man pays the product of his labor 
for a hundred acre tract, presumably for purposes of 
agriculture, and discovers thereon or thereunder a rich 
vein of coal. To whom does that coal belong ? It 
is the gift of God not to one man in particular but to all 
men in general. It belongs rightfully and justly to him 
who owns the land, and by the same identical chain of 
titles from the beginning, and no man or set of men has 
a right, either inherent, expressed, or implied, to dispos- 
sess him of that coal without his consent any more than 
(if by a cataclysm of nature he should become dis- 
possessed) he would have the right to force any man or 
set of men to repossess him against their consent. Man 
is entitled to the benefit of good-fortune to a reasonable 
extent, and should not be asked or expected to share 
same with the public (except after it has become abnor- 
mal, useless, and unweildy) any more than the public 
should be expected to share his misfortunes, his sickness, 
or disease until they become abnormal and too great for 
him to bear ; then all now admit that the public should 
share his burthen — that is, provide him a bed in a 
hospital and a competent nurse, and bury him if he 
dies. Since it was long ago admitted and in practice 
that the public should share with the individual his 
extraordinary afflictions, to the extent that would not be 
hurtful to the public by placing a premium on idleness. 



PHRONOCRACY 7/ 

so likewise should it be admitted that the individual 
should in turn share with the public his extraordinary 
benefits, to an extent that will not be hurtful to himself 
by depriving him of reasonable reward for his energy and 
his strife. Whilst it is neither fair nor equitable nor just 
to institute that condition in society which will interfere 
with, hamper, or oppress any individual in the possession 
and enjoyment of the fruits of his labor or the rewards 
of his good-fortune, yet, as civilization progresses, the 
current opinion of the world rather settles down to the 
belief that monstrosities in individual accumulation are 
like monstrosities in nature — that is, undesirable and of 
no account ; that when a man, either by dint of hard 
labor or good-fortune, has amassed an estate equal in its 
productive capacity to the labor of several thousand of 
his fellow-men, or, in other words, when he owns the 
labor of several thousand of his fellow-men by securing 
possession of a certain amount of the wealth that their 
labor had produced, and which wealth he has acquired 
by his tact, his shrewdness, his energy, his skill, or his 
good luck — all recognizable and properly creditable to- 
his account in a well-conditioned state of society, — 
nevertheless, when this accumulation had become mon- 
strous, which by reason of its own accretion, aided 
by an increment which the need of society contributes, 
as it frequently does, that it is not, in fact, an injustice 
to the individual, it works him no harm nor causes him 
any discomfort to say to him that you shall hereafter 
contribute to the support of government a larger propor- 
tionate share of your inordinate wealth than shall 
be required of your brother who possesses it only 
to a reasonable competency, but that this increased 
proportionate contribution shall work you no injury nor 
cause you any discomfort in truth and in fact. A titled 



yS POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

aristocrat in England was said at one time to own and 
control about half the coal out-put of that country. His 
wealth was of course colossal but it represented the accu- 
mulation of much time and many favorable conditions, 
for the reason that the progress of civilization and the 
increase of population is slower in England than in 
America, where there now lives richer men whose estate 
represents the accretion of but one generation, because 
the progress of civilization in America and the increase 
of population — consequently the increase of demand and 
the gain from the strides of unearned increment — are 
faster. Unearned increment or the accretion of wealth 
in America is actually more rapid in many cases than 
disintegration by inherited division. For example : in- 
dividuals of the third generation lived, in 1890, whose 
estates, though originally but a part of the grandsire's 
possessions, are now greater than the original in its en- 
tirety. This could not have been the case in England 
but for the prevalence of the idea of estate tail and primo- 
geniture, an institution completely dissipated in the minds 
of those who have progressed sufficiently to recognize 
even remotely that there are no natural rights whatsoever 
inherent in one man and not as well in another. It usu- 
ally happens that to make any great storehouse of nature 
available to the people industry and enterprise must both 
be expended and accumulated capital must be forthcom- 
ing or nothing can be accomplished. 

If all men had access to land and its belongings these 
great resources of latent and undeveloped wealth would in 
the main be operated in a crude and primeval manner, 
without system and method, without concentrated brain 
force and energy — all essential to the best results in enter- 
prise and business. If such property could not be owned 
and ten thousand men should elect on their individual 



PHRONOCRACY 79 

motion to enter in upon and mine coal as a profitable 
occupation, they could not, other than by a combination 
of interests directed to the construction of tramways, 
hoists, and other necessary apparatus, possibly do other 
or more than to operate in the most crude and ineffect- 
ual manner — such as digging in the pit and then on their 
backs conveying the product to the entrance of the mine 
or to the dump, resulting unavoidably in a smaller aggre- 
gate cf production. When this had been accomplished, 
such is the natural situation of mines relatively to the 
world's consuming centres, that transportation would 
have to be provided for. Since, though land be free, 
man could, under single tax, own countless thousands 
of railway carriages, and, even under the said system, 
combine them into trusts so as to prevent opposition, 
and, worse than all, avoid taxation, — colossal transporta- 
tion companies would notwithstanding "uninterrupted 
access " be organized to carry the coal to the nearest 
point of consumption, and since only by their inter- 
mediation could the product be used at all, they 
would exact for this service such a compensation as 
would leave to the operator and his "uninterrupted 
access to natural opportunity " an amount simply suffi- 
cient to maintain his bodily existence, and in no case 
more in effect if indeed as much as if the transportation 
companies had owned the mines as well as the railways 
and improved their appointments (as can only be 
done by concentrated capital) and paid the operators 
their per diem. Greater would be the chance of in- 
creased compensation by rigid and inflexible labor or- 
ganization than by " uninterrupted access to natural 
opportunity," and, be that organization inflexible and 
rigid, howsoever, in the end and on the average supply 
and demand will settle the whole question, so that the 



80 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

intermediation of labor combination, restrictive legisla- 
tion, or any device whatsoever not bottomed on the eter- 
nal substratum — the natural ebb and flow of things — will 
ultimately become absolutely ineffectual and abortive — 
if not " then is an adder better than an eel because his 
skin is painted." What signifies the price of a man's 
labor ? — simply what it will buy, or, in other words, the 
amount of the things produced by the labor of other men 
for which it can be exchanged. If, therefore, all men 
should demand and all men should secure an advance in 
their wages, would not the price of all commodities inevi- 
tably advance in proportion, so that the condition rela- 
tively would be exactly the same ? If two bushels of wheat 
had heretofore been worth one pair of boots, what matters 
it if things are so altered as that four bushels of wheat 
are worth two pair of boots ? If, however, the coal miner, 
only, by combination secures an advance in his wages, 
his labor is of course producing relatively more than 
that of the bootmaker, — rather his product secures more 
of the product of his fellows than heretofore, — so he is 
happy ; but, whenever his condition has been bettered in 
any noticeable particular, here come along ten thousand 
men and begin to apply for jobs as miners, and ere long 
they acquire proficiency ; hence increased competition 
follows and the price goes down though maintained, it 
may be, for a time by labor organization, but in the end 
and on the average the level will be reached. It may be 
asked, then how do some men gain wealth in excess of 
others at all ? To which we answer, in ten thousand 
ways, but all depending upon the utilization of and con- 
sequent profit derived from the labor of his fellow-men, 
or by the natural accretion of property of which he has 
become possessed, by the natural demands of society — 
all of which is right, just, and proper ; but for the good 



PHRONOCRA.CY 8 1 

of many and to the harm of none it should be deter- 
mined not to permit it to go too far. Cause men to con- 
tribute to government in proportion to their ability, and 
ere long their accumulations (which beyond certain 
limits are not often the result of their own energy or 
ability anyhow, but of fortune or of the natural accretions 
of property inherently) will cease. 

This it will be found, after schemes and plans without 
number have been proposed and concocted, after man's 
brain has been racked till confusion and chaos has char^ 
acterized his being, is about all that can be done to 
better-man's condition, and consistently with man's right 
to property and to a reasonable reward for his energy is, 
in fact, all that should be done ; in other words, put a 
governor on the engine and then turn on the steam. 

Better this than to continuously try to regulate the 
speed by tampering with the throttle direct. Let the 
speed check itself, let the slothfulness accelerate it. Be- 
fore the governor will work, the engine must have 
motion ; so before civilization can progress it must have 
motion, and as the force that creates motion in the 
engine is steam, so the force that creates it in civilization 
is individual energy and action, and not theories for the 
eradication of poverty, nor for the extirpation of disease 
(both equally impossible), nor for "uninterrupted access 
to natural opportunity," nor the lack of it, nor by schemes 
for discriminating paternalism in government, nor by 
anything of kindred import. Another and equally un- 
tenable proposition of the single tax, or land confisca- 
tionists, is that to impose a tax on the products of labor 
is to discourage and thwart the exercise of that labor ; 
that to tax a house — the product of a man's, or of many 
men's, toil — would discourage the building of houses, and 

not only so, but to tax the products of labor is inherently 
6 



82 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

and of itself unjust, and to tax anything save the " God- 
given inheritance " on which we live, breathe, and have 
our being is hostile to progress and inimical to the best 
interests, aims, objects, hopes, and aspirations of men. 
With reason equally cogent and uncontrovertible, w r e can 
say that the air and water are the " God-given inheri- 
tance," and if the principle of taxation, which is simply 
a human institution for providing means to protect 
human property against human viciousness and unre- 
straint, is applicable only to the crude material substance 
of nature, these too are not justifiably exempt, and 
should by some human device be made returnable to the 
assessor. If it is right to tax only the " God-given inheri- 
tance," it is right to tax any one as well as any other 
of these God-inherited things, and wrong to exempt one 
and overburthen the other. It could be reasonably 
closely estimated how many respirations man makes in a 
day — that is, how much air he vitiates — and, likewise, how 
much water he drinks and how much he uses for his 
bath, and on each thousand respirations of a man of or- 
dinary pectoral development a certain levy might be im- 
posed, and, aside from the price of convenient and 
expeditious delivery, a certain levy could be made on 
each thousand gallons of aqua pure consumed ; these, 
together with the other God-given inheritance — land, — 
forming a grand triumvirate of natural objects that are 
not man-produced or man-altered, hence the proper 
subjects of taxation — the three forming a tout ensemble 
too utterly just and equitable, too absolutely perfect 
and indiscriminating, too entirely alleviatory of the 
burthens that oppress mankind, to be considered pos- 
sible of human contrivance or invention. The scheme 
itself must therefore be " God-given," as are the arti- 
cles properly subject to taxation. Why, in the name 



PHRONOCRACY 83 

of all that is just and reasonable, yes, "in the name o( 
all the gods at once," should not property — all property 
— be the proper subject of taxation, since it is in the in- 
terest of property, in fact, solely for the protection of in- 
dividual rights in and to property and life that taxation 
is to be or should be imposed on anything ? The impo- 
sition of a tax under proper regulations does not inter- 
fere with the exercise of individual energy any more than 
a hat on the head interferes with individual thought. A 
man who had intended to construct a house, either for 
occupancy or investment, is seldom deterred therefrom 
because of taxation. He builds with a knowledge of the 
fact that certain taxes must and will be imposed, and 
figures that rents and income from the use of his house 
will be correspondingly high. It is a well-known fact 
that in communities where taxes are high rents are 
usually commensurable, and profits and returns corre- 
spondingly so ; and in places where reverse conditions 
exist reverse results obtain ; in a word, the ability to pay 
a tax is proportionate to the productive value of the 
property, and it matters not if temporarily a dispropor- 
tion should exist, in the end it will be found that on the 
average the proper ratio remains. It is but a fair con- 
clusion, deducible from commercial experience generally, 
that if taxes on houses were taken off, the rents, in the 
regular adjustment of things, would proportionately de- 
cline, just as the tax on spirituous or malt liquors adds 
that much to their price, and in the end is paid in full 
by the men who shall buy, so likewise is the tax on a 
house paid in the end by the man who shall use, bringing 
about a balance, compensating the owner, and not deter- 
ring him from constructing. Why do sane men urge 
such nonsense as a remedy for social wrong ? Why shoot 
quids at giants or storm citadels with sand ? 



84 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

If houses are constructed or steamships built in excess 
of demand for legitimate use, rents and traffic rates will 
decline, taxation or no taxation ; and if demand exists 
in excess of supply, rents and traffic rates will advance, 
taxation or no taxation. Hence, to the winds with the 
theory that taxation retards and thwarts individual enter- 
prise, and that taxation on earth, air, and water alone 
would expedite same — it is a barren ideality. Again, it 
is a fair supposition that taxation in the aggregate and 
on the average amounts to about twenty-five per cent, 
of rent, or say a house yielding eight per cent, on cost 
will pay about two per cent, in tax. It cannot be proven 
that with no tax twenty-five per cent, more houses would 
be built should the demand remain the same. It may 
be urged that demand would increase, which proposition 
is equally uncertain, because demand usually follows in- 
crease of population, not decrease of taxation, and will 
more likely be doubled if population is doubled than if 
taxation is halved. There is no more justice anyhow in 
taxing property that is the result of the " God-given 
inheritance " (which is valuable only as man's labor 
makes it so) than to tax anything else he may own. 
A man cannot eat the land nor sleep on it comfortably 
in most localities without blankets or some other article 
which is the product of his labor, and since by the same 
rightful title that a tree holds certain soil by its roots he 
becomes the owner of it, and then of products made out 
of it by his labor, and to protect which products (all of 
them) he institutes government, and to support that 
government he imposes taxation, it is right that all of 
that property should contribute. Of course by common 
consent all men who constitute society could in the be- 
ginning mutually agree that some one commodity should 
bear all taxation for purposes of simplicity, or that 



PH MONOCRACY 85 

some article of luxury should be chosen because it 
would bear more lightly on the less fortunate of the 
state, and this commodity would thereafter be held and 
possessed with reference thereto, and the thing would be 
just and equitable ; but after man's energies have been 
expended, and the products of the labor of some have 
been invested in houses and some in merchandise and 
some in land, he who maintains that that land should be 
confiscated opposes the first principle of common justice 
itself. It is highly desirable and strictly proper to select 
some article of luxury from which to derive most of the 
tax, for from that source it is least burthensome on 
society, and what can possibly be more luxuriant than the 
extraordinary accumulations, and the useless and burthensome 
accretions, of individual wealth — all wholly luxurious ex- 
cept to the extent that luxury is marred by anxiety and 
care ? From this source all taxation should be taken 
that is consistent with a proper regard by society for the 
reasonable expectations and rewards of the individual, 
and not from land only, not from water only, nor from any 
other thing only, except these extraordinary accumulations 
only. 

To the land confiscationists, to the government absorp- 
tionist, to the agrarians, — in fact, to all who are opposed 
to acquiescing in the conditions of affairs as they are 
just because they are so, and who do not admit that they 
could be better just because they are not bettered, — 
which class of the world's people (excluding the anar- 
chists, who are nothing) are not only worthy of highest 
respect and consideration, but are essentially its brain, 
its bone, and its sinew, is proposed this affirmation and 
disproof anxiously awaited, to wit : 

Any enactment or law that burthens all mankind the 
same, the benefits of which are available to all mankind the 



86 POLITICS AND PROPERTY' 

same, will not materially alter the relative condition of all 
mankind. 

A restraining enactment is like a load upon the shoul- 
ders of society. Some will sustain it easier, and make 
progress under it better than others, simply and solely 
because they are inherently stronger, because they are 
favored with more encouraging or, as the case may 
be, less discouraging circumstances or conditions. So, 
on the other hand, is abolition of a restraining law or 
the enactments of a supposed beneficial law like unto an 
assistant or an impetus to society ; consequently being 
applicable to all mankind both as to benefit or burthen 
as the case may be, and mankind still retaining their 
individual attributes, characteristics, and instincts as 
before, or being the same as before — the subjects of 
favorable or unfavorable conditions and opportunities, 
which will always be an incident to the world's affairs, 
just as daylight and darkness are incident to and conse- 
quent upon its rotation on its axis, it follows inevitably 
that their relative conditions cannot be materially altered. 
Give to all mankind equal and uninterrupted access to 
natural opportunity and — if there is anything valuable 
in it — some will make better use of it than others, until 
in the end the same relative condition will exist as 
before. If we would take a horizontal view of mankind 
in general, as he peregrinates the surface of this mun- 
dane sphere, prosecuting his little, but to him, great, 
business, he would perhaps resemble the great Egyptian 
pyramid in the valley of the Nile and its surroundings, 
the masses likened unto the sands that lie in myriads at 
its base, the higher classes in horizontal planes above and 
above to the acme of human preferment and earthly 
renown at the top. It is asked what could be the rela- 
tive difference in their conditions if the whole thing was 



PHRONOCRACY 87 

lifted up one thousand feet, or the whole settled down 
one hundred feet ? 

Laws under which all have the same opportunity and 
all sustain the same burthen certainly leave the previous 
relative condition unchanged. The only remedy there- 
fore is to enact laws that do not offer to all the same 
opportunity and which place on some greater burthens 
than on others ; and to so adjust these laws as to leave 
to him by whom the greatest load is borne, ample oppor- 
tunity for life, liberty, and action, and not to make the 
load so light on any as that they should have life, liberty, 
and action thrust upon them and be maintained without 
effort, is difficult, but by Phronocracy it is explained. 

It can be accomplished by making all men contribute 
to government in proportion to their ability to contribute 
and by not permitting men who contribute nothing to 
participate in government at all. It will be, of course, 
urged against the proposition that it is per se and ipso 
facto socialistic, to which it is answered : yea, verily, 
but it is a very mild and harmless type of that disorder ; 
rather it is conservative socialism, which recognizes 
man's right to a reasonable, yes, liberal, reward for 
his energy and his action, and proposes, in addition, 
to recompense him for the sacrifice of his extra- 
ordinary accumulation, by guaranteeing increased secu- 
rity and protection for the reasonable and abundant 
remnant that he may yet retain, by denying to men who 
have no property all right of participation in the gov- 
ernment that is instituted for the protection of property. 

It is admitted also that in addition to this conserva- 
tive socialism a certain additional socialistic spirit 
should prevail, but this may be to a certain extent 
curtailed. 

For example, it is a self-evident proposition that all 



S& POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

streets in cities must be maintained at public expense 
for the free and untaxed use of all ; «that this is in the 
nature of a thing necessary ; also that cities should, but 
to the least possible extent, maintain almshouses for the 
poor, since poverty cannot be absolutely abolished ; also 
support hospitals for the sick, since disease is the twin 
brother of poverty, though perhaps born first. Cities 
should likewise support a cordon of police, and a trained 
brigade for the extinguishment of fires, and appliances 
for lighting their streets, for cleaning same, and for the 
removal of garbage and filth — all admitted to be in keep- 
ing with the natural order of things ; also public docks 
and wharves might at times be necessary, and if so should 
be provided. So likewise should counties support public 
roads, and, at times, public asylums. All these things, 
however, are matters of exclusive local control, and are 
not uniform or the same throughout the land. 

This may be objected to on the grounds of socialism, 
as are also public parks and edifices ; but these objec- 
tions appear technical and captious, and of course avail 
but little. No man can deny the socialistic feature. 
Yet certain things appear proper just because they are 
necessary, certain things it appears to be the communi- 
ties' right to do just because they are required ; and, all 
consenting, or a very small minority objecting, they are 
done. In fact, such socialism as is practised appears to 
be a benefit to property ; a broad, smooth street and a 
level country road increases the value of property, even 
though everybody can use it on the socialistic principle. 
The government absorptionists then conclude that if it 
is good for a county to maintain a road, why should not 
government maintain all roads ; to which it is replied 
that if it is good to eat three meals per day, why 
not three hundred ? Three hundred are not thought 



PHRONOCRACY 89 

wholesome for the body, and three are a benefit ; so 
likewise free streets and country roads are in practice 
and in conformity with the natural order of things good 
and wholesome, and the absorption of any more of the 
people's business by government is not good or whole- 
some. It is much more hurtful to place too much with 
government than to leave too little with it, and since the 
people are the creators of the government and the gov- 
ernment when created is administered by people like 
themselves, why give to simple agents what can be as 
well, yea, to a better extent, performed by the princi- 
pals ? The enlightened world has ceased to believe that 
governments of right should possess many if any pre- 
rogatives or powers other than such as are required to 
preserve domestic order, to maintain the public defence, 
regulate commerce between sections, and provide uniform 
standards of currency, weights, measures, and the like. 



CHAPTER V. 

Phronocracy : what is it ? — Other efforts at reform impracticable — 
Cumulative taxation should be adopted — Monopolistic enterprises 
must be popularly owned — Taxation on individual excesses just 
and proper — Rate always one cent per each thousand dollars 
cumulative — Uselessness of excessive wealth and folly of univer- 
sal suffrage ; amendment curtailing both — Rate to apply to indi- 
viduals only, not to corporations — Desirableness of more popular 
ownership of enterprises and less popular participation in 
government. 

' ' This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him ; 
The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening — nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do." 

Truly it may be said, and in candor we may confess, 
that in treating so great a subject all men 

" Have ventured, 
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders 
This many summers in a sea of glory, 
But far beyond their depth." 

And that though striving to seek truth, banish false- 
hood, and to reconcile the apparent inconsistencies of 
society and to better regulate its operations, they have 
received no other or greater reward than to be left, 

" Weary and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream that must forever hide them." 

90 



PHRONOCRACY 9 1 

However, it will never do for progressive man to con- 
tent himself with the reflection that whatever is is best, 
for if so, what now is never would have been. Neither 
should we refrain from the careful consideration of a 
proposition because it at first appears unreasonable. 

" Our doubts are traitors, which make us lose 
The good we oft might win, by failing to attempt." 

There is great room and great necessity for the better- 
ment of social conditions throughout the world, and 
where there are both room and necessity, efforts will be 
continuous, and, as society advances, better and greater 
will be the result. 

Anarchy will not do, and is offensive to order ; out-and- 
out agrarianism, communism, or socialism will not an- 
swer, for they are inimical to the natural right of man to 
the fruits of his own labor ; government absorption will 
not do, because of being in effect the same thing ; 
land confiscation will not do, because it is impractica- 
ble and non-efficacious. All other systems and plans that 
aim in any way at property rights should be abandoned, 
and those who look to legislation will soon discover that 
through it lies the only possible remedy ; yet legislation 
that is of such character and intent as to affect all men 
alike will leave the relative condition the same, and hence 
be ineffectual and abortive. 

Legislation, therefore, that will apply to men differ- 
ently is about the last resort. It is agreed that colossal 
accumulations do no man any good, and that in the in- 
terest of the popular weal great properties should be as 
popularly owned as possible consistent with a due re- 
gard for prudential considerations and efficient opera- 
tion, just as it is thought well in the legislative assemblages 
of the world to get at popular representation as nearly as 



92 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

possible consistent with the stability in government. As 
it is discovered that each $1,000 of wealth in America 
will earn about as much as one stout, healthy, and even 
frugal laboring man can possibly save, it follows that, in 
effect, for every $r,ooo a man possesses, he owns one 
man. It is evident that no man's wants can possibly be 
more than one thousand times as great as those of the av- 
erage man, and that if by reason of his self-importance 
he should perchance conceive them so, the community 
should think it but a wholesome reprimand to remind him 
of his mistake. He cannot with one wife well sire more 
than one and twenty children, and in practice scarcely 
equal ten ; he cannot eat much more nor drink much 
more, nor possibly live in a style or condition more than 
a thousand times as comfortable or elegant as the aver- 
age, because human ingenuity cannot contrive it ; he 
cannot in fact properly use for either his wants, his pleas- 
ures, or his luxury a thousand times as much of anything 
as the average of his fellows ; why, therefore, should any 
individual possess more wealth than a thousand times as 
much as the average of his fellows ? It is beyond dis- 
pute that this maximum will provide for all possible 
wants, either necessary or luxurious, and leave in the 
balance a good compensation for greed besides. It is 
therefore proposed that in proportion as a man's estate 
is large, so in a like proportion should his tax rate be 
large. It is assumed, and very justly, that all estates 
will produce a revenue, and statistics and experience 
make clear the fact that about 5 per cent, income main- 
tains property at par in stable communities on the basis 
of one hundred, and that such as comes under this is, in 
the natural course of things, considered and counted less 
valuable, and on this safe and reasonable assumption all 
dealings with incomes can be abandoned, and, from mo- 



PHRONOCRACY 93 

tives of justice, simplicity, and accuracy, the rate can be 
imposed on the property direct. It the owner fails to 
collect his income it is no fault of the state, and the gen- 
eral average of assessments arrived at from current evi- 
dence of values will work no great injury. Then, as 
this rate is to be made cumulative in the ratio that the 
property is cumulative, it should so advance as that when 
a reasonable maximum has been acquired the rate will 
equal the current revenue, beyond which amount it can 
never go ; that is, beyond the amount on which out- 
go for government will equal the income from revenue, 
the estate cannot increase. Since it is thought fair and 
right and just that when any man owns one thousand 
times as much as the average man he should own no more 
(for more would be of no value), that amount was at first 
to be recommended as a maximum. Since the average 
wealth in America is about $r,ooo per capita, that allot- 
ment would be 1,000,000. The rate, therefore, is to be 
made cumulative, so that when a 1,000,000 assessment to 
any individual is made, it would equal 5 per cent, 
interest, which rate would be five cents on every $1,000 
cumulative. 

The system is proposed to be applied by the general 
government only, as a means of deriving its own income, 
and to the extent that it is adequate, the only means the 
general government shall apply, leaving to the States 
and the cities their unquestioned rights to adopt their 
own means and methods for raising local revenue. 

Since local excises in many places aggregate 2 per 
cent., and on the average is little less, it is found that 
when the government's cumulative rate would be ap- 
plied, outgo would equal income on a basis of 5 per 
cent, before the estate reached an aggregate much ex- 
ceeding half a million dollars. To provide, therefore, 



94 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

for extravagance and local excises, and in a spirit of 
utmost liberality, it is finally proposed that the annual 
rate on every individual estate shall be equal to the 
cumulative amount of i cent instead of 5 cents for 
every $1,000 in that estate ; or in other words, that 
every man's rate per thousand shall, for the purpose of 
the support of the general government, be one hundred- 
thousandth part of his estate, which would make outgo 
equal to income on a basis of 5 per cent, interest when 
the estate reached $5,000,000 instead of $1,000,000, or 
the labor of 5,000 men instead of 1,000 men, or to the 
richest 5,000 times the property of the average instead 
of 1,000 times, as had originally been thought proper. 
However, since for local purpose a rate equal to about 
2 per cent, will have to be provided, in effect outgo 
would equal income on a basis of 1 cent for each $1,000 
cumulative, and 5 per cent, interest when the estate 
aggregated about $2,500,000, which would be equivalent 
to the labor of 2,500 men, or to the highest above the 
average an estate 2,500 times as great instead of 1,000 
times as great, as was at first proposed. This, in the 
estimation of any reasonable person, is more than is 
required for any man's comfort, or for his luxury. 
Furthermore, owing to the perfection of the system of 
assessment and the better administration of public 
affairs, as will hereafter be explained, all or nearly all 
secreted property can be discovered, so that the local 
rate can be materially reduced, averaging instead of 2 
only about 1 per cent., which, on the basis of 1 cent for 
each $1,000 cumulative and 5 per cent, interest, the 
estate may reach about $4,000,000 before outgo would 
equal income, which gives to the favored individual the 
labor of 4,000 men and an estate 4,000 times as great as 
the average before he shall be called upon to halt. This 



PHRONOCRACY 95 

by many is regarded as excessive, and an effort may be 
made to place the cumulative rate at 2 cents for every 
$1,000, or one fifty-thousandth part of the value of the 
estate ; in fact, widespread and forcible might be the 
public opinion in favor of the million-dollar limit, not- 
withstanding local assessment, which, reduced as it 
would be by good government and proper assessments 
to 1 per cent., would leave, notwithstanding the cumula- 
tive rate, a fortune to the favored individual of about 
$8oo,coo — an amount by many deemed amply sufficient, 
representing as it would the labor of 800 men, or an 
amount 800 times as large as the average wealth per 
capita, and equal to the largest estate in America a hun- 
dred years ago. If from less than $1,000,000 to over 
$200,000,000 in one hundred years, what may it be in the 
next hundred years ? It is discovered, in figuring up the 
value of individual estates, that myriads are small and 
but few are large, hence the cumulative rate would aver- 
age but little and would scarcely yield enough to produce 
the revenue required by the general government, which, 
properly administered, should be between $250,000,000 
and $300,000,000 per annum, so that in addition to the 
cumulative or graduated tax a percentage of increase 
would doubtless be required to meet the requirements 
of the government, and a corresponding percentage of 
decrease could be made in case the revenue should 
become too great ; but in any event and under all con- 
ditions, the cumulative rate would be first applied and 
then either added to or taken from by percentages of 
horizontal increase or reduction as the case may be. 
The rate per thousand being just one hundred-thou- 
sandth part of the aggregate of the estate makes it very 
easy of calculation, and whilst it will be opposed by the 
rich as socialistic and unjust, it should be supported by 



g6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

the middle classes on the ground of absolute justice. 
One man can afford to pay a rate per thousand equal to 
the one hundred-thousandth part of his estate just as 
well as another man can ; in fact, the rich can better 
afford it than the poor, and it is, in truth, no discrimina- 
tion, and really not unjustly socialistic at all. The one 
hundred-thousandth part of a big estate is of course 
greater than the same part of a small estate, but the 
large estate can better afford it, and hence conditions 
are simply just and equitable. After much discussion 
and endless research into details and statistics for infor- 
mation relative to the magnitude of individual estates 
from which to ascertain the average, so as to form a 
definite idea what the cumulative rate would be, it is 
determined to recommend the one-cent-per-thousand 
basis, and to empower the government to increase or 
diminish by horizontal percentages as demand might 
require, which will answer all purposes, especially in 
view of the fact that, owing to the crude and incomplete 
system of assessment and the opportunity under it for 
large secretiveness of wealth (which can be almost en- 
tirely remedied, as will be explained later on), no definite 
information can be obtained, and what is secured leads 
to the belief that under a proper system it would be so 
much changed as to afford no reliable basis of calcula- 
tion. The advocates of all other systems of social 
reform, such as the out-and-out agrarians, the govern- 
ment absorptionists, the land confiscators, and so forth, 
have simply paraded their views before the public from 
the hustings, through the prints, and by divers means 
and methods, and have incited the people to anger 
and rage by playing upon their prejudices and their 
passions, but have dealt only in generalizations. In 
other words, they say that the whole thing as it is is 



PHRONOCRACY 97 

radically wrong, and that their particular scheme would 
right it, and thus generalize and elocutionize and phi- 
losophize, but fail to specialize — fail to say just how the 
thing could be accomplished ; in fact, this they cannot 
say, because their propositions are impracticable and 
consequently cannot be put into feasible and succinct 
shape. To put an impracticable thing into practical 
working shape is impossible — for example, it was asked 
of the socialists, shall we introduce a measure into the 
Federal Congress declaring that all property shall be 
confiscated and held in community ; shall we elect con- 
gressmen, senators, and State legislators, favorable to 
this policy, and if we succeed in so doing can we even 
then enforce our decrees and our mandates ? 

Will present holders of property not use forcible meas- 
ures to prevent, and combine for their own protection to 
preserve their rightful possessions, the homes of their 
wives and their children, the property for which they have 
expended their toil and their labor ? In a word, is it at 
all reasonable to conclude that the present holders of 
estates will all disgorge voluntarily that which for genera- 
tions has been owned, loved, and enjoyed ? Rather is it 
not more reasonable to expect that force would be 
resorted to to prevent, and that force would have to be 
resorted to to carry out any such violent and unjust 
decree ? In consequence of which facts, why tamper with 
legislation at all, but by one organized effort, as the 
anarchists would recommend, — and which in fact would 
in practice be necessary even though intermediary legis- 
lation was passed, — strike amid the thunder of a million 
guns, and with glistening bayonets and swords, together 
with a brand of fire, a rod and axe make wild sport of 
blazing homes, and in the wake of ghastly carnage and 
of blood cause massacre to seal right's eternal grave, 



98 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

and " thick night to pall us in the dunnest smoke of 
Hell ? " 

In fact, there is nothing more feasible than reasonable 
connected with the whole proposition. All property in 
community practically means anarchy in its operating 
effects, whilst milder to the ear and softer to the tongue, 
yet they are twin demons littered the same night — an- 
archy the elder but not more powerful. 

There appears to be no feasible plan of getting at 
the thing anyway, probably because all minds able to 
plan and devise are opposed to any such nonsense. It 
takes brains to plan out anything, and in such assem- 
blages brains will never commingle. It is clear that to 
carry any such propositions force, and force alone, would 
avail, and it would have to be most powerful and con- 
tinuous ever to prevail. To talk about accomplishing 
a thing of this nature by enactments of law seems ridi- 
culous, and just what enactments would be proper to 
meet the situation no advocate can say, so that there 
is always a chaos of complaints, at times wild and 
incendiary utterances from the stump, but no tangible 
plan proposed. The people have been made to be- 
lieve that monopolies are absorbing the earth and its 
belongings unlawfully ; that large estates are the result 
of the grossest subversion of existing law, the effect 
of purchase and sale of judges on the bench, of 
combinations and intrigue against the popular 
weal, and all such platitudinous badinage and bom- 
bast. 

The facts are that there doubtless exists, not one dol- 
lar of property in the hands of any of the several 
one-hundred millionaires that is not held within the 
recognized pale of the law, otherwise ten thousand sharks 
and legal vampires would be ready to pounce upon the 
victim as a hungry wolf upon its inoffensive prey ; in 



PHRONOCRACY 99 

fact, all kinds of imaginary claims are trumped up 
against the rich for purposes simply of blackmail and 
slander in the hope of propitiation for suppression, 
which in many cases has been obtained. 

All claims as to unlawful possessions are either the 
result of ignorance, falsification, or of a diseased imagi- 
nation. Anything not held by sanction of the highest 
court is usually brought to the test of that tribunal 
before the owner can secure respite from ceaseless exac- 
tion and legal annoyance. 

The fault is not in the courts nor in the administra- 
tion of existing law. What is needed is new law to 
meet the case, presented and passed in some feasible 
shape. Property, or the results of the people's labor on 
earth, is of course becoming unreasonably centralized, 
in fact, as was once frankly admitted by one of the hun- 
dred millionaires, entirely uselessly so. This gentleman 
possesses brains and is philosophical in his reflections, 
his penetration is deep, his ratiocination able. He 
admitted that one million dollars was enough for any 
man to own ; that his accumulations above that amount 
were the natural and unavoidable results of the equally 
unavoidable developments of his properties — develop- 
ments made necessary by the ever and rapid increase of 
the population of the locality and for the use and benefit 
of the people of the country. 

He had by the exercise of wise perspicacity and the 
dint of circumstance and opportunity whilst engaged in 
the strife of life become connected with railway enter- 
prises (he might, had circumstances operated differently, 
been in almost anv other avocation), and had become 
rich by development and good management. He could 
not force the public to sell their stock cheap or to buy 
his stock high. All profit that he ever made in this 
manner was the result of a square bargain and sale be- 



IOO POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

tween men. If he could by presenting to a man from 
whom he desired to buy, a certain kind of argument 
in consequence of which the latter became convinced 
and concluded to sell, he had not wronged that man, any 
more than the grocer who sells flour or the tailor who 
sells cloth had wronged the man with whom they dealt ; 
he could force none to sell, he could force none to 
buy, and if as the results of any such deal he profited, 
was he not entitled to the profit ? 

Once possessed of railway property, the development 
of the country made necessary great extensions, increas- 
ing demand caused increased earnings, and hence, as an 
incident to this development, which he did not and 
could not create, or in any sense alter or control, he be- 
came very rich. Had the country retrogressed instead 
of progressed, had population diminished instead of in- 
creased, for which condition he would have been as little 
responsible and as powerless to change as he was the 
former condition, he would not have become so rich — 
possibly have died poor. To the extent that favorable 
conditions made him, so might the opposite have ruined 
him. It is found that great fortunes are accumulated 
in those pursuits or enterprises that are, by reason of 
favorable location or conditions, or in consequence of 
the force of human preference and desire, in and of 
themselves prosperous. For example, America being a 
large country, the whole land for three thousand miles 
abounding in profusion with the means of subsistence 
and the necessaries of life, the government throwing 
aside all embargoes to traffic between the States, the 
people being enterprising and the land being rich, 
drained by vast rivers and favored with genial climes, 
the inevitable consequence is that not only the native 
population but millions from abroad seek those rich 



PHRONOCRACY IOI 

fields and pastures green, and from ocean to ocean, with 
no State restrictions, there is a natural desire and demand 
for communication and transportation. Hence railway 
property has increased beyond all conception, until even 
in 1890 America, scarce aged beyond infancy in the 
world's family of nations, contained more miles of rail- 
way than all the world combined, and why — simply and 
solely because natural conditions have favored — in fact, 
demanded it. The shipping interests in England have 
become greater than those of all the world combined, be- 
cause her colonies are vast and separated by countless 
miles of trackless sea ; trade and communication are not 
only desired but demanded, and as ships alone can sup- 
ply the condition, ships are constructed, and that, too, 
by the very nation that requires them most, as railways 
are constructed by the very people that require them 
most. So that with America excelling all the world with 
rail, and Great Britain the proud mistress of the deep 
and dark-blue sea, the two nations, akin by blood and 
similar in intuitions and desires, speaking the same 
tongue, having the same aspirations, characteristics, 
hopes, and aims, practically control the business — in a 
word, the property — of the world, each developing in the 
identical line best suited to its natural conditions ; and, 
as in America from the rail, so in the British Empire 
from the sail, are the greatest fortunes accumulated. 
Those interests therefore have been the developing ones, 
by reason of the natural order of things, in these coun- 
tries, and the individuals who have prosecuted this busi- 
ness have participated in and received the benefits of the 
development — in other words, have become rich, not en- 
tirely by reason of their own superior energy or sagacity, 
which if displayed in other avocations void of such 
opportunity might have achieved no marked success, 



102 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

but by reason of the enterprise they have followed 
essentially and the general progress which by reason of 
natural courses has attended them. 

It may be asked why all men, therefore, have not en- 
gaged in these favored industries ; to which it may be 
answered, why do not all men become members of Par- 
liament or of Congress ? There is much in circumstance, 
in opportunity, in the unseen, unknown, and unknowable 
influences and energies of the Great Whole. It is un- 
doubtedly true that natural conditions and circumstances 
do, in a large degree, control and determine the progress 
of the world's affairs, and regulate the status of men in 
the world. 

Human preferences, likes, dislikes, and other motives 
and agencies, work no inconsiderable part, but it is 
equally certain that if a man's energies, it matters not 
how powerfully exerted, are expended in the prosecution 
of an enterprise that is not blessed with the prompting 
impetus of favorable conditions and of human prefer- 
ence, they will be abortive and unprofitable. This has 
been forcibly illustrated in the case of steamboat naviga- 
tion on the great rivers of America, which, though 
admirably adapted to transportation, have succumbed to 
the more suitable method — rail ; and the men who were 
most persistent and most energetic in these river enter- 
prises are the ones who have fared worst, because they 
have declined just as the rail has advanced, and both 
have been wholly beyond the control of their votaries, 
who, as individuals, are no more responsible for the ruin 
of the boats than for the success of the rails, but simply 
followed along with each like puppy-dogs' tails. Thus, 
as the philosophical hundred-million-dollar magnate 
admitted, his fortune is largely — almost entirely — -the 
result of the necessary development of his property, 



PHRONOCRACY IO3 

consequent, not wholly upon his energy or sagacity, but 
upon the people's wants and accidental circumstances. 

It was said to this magnate that if his property beyond 
a million was burthensome, he might possibly find people 
willing to relieve him of the excess. " Well," said he, 
"if conditions had been such that I never could have 
amassed the excess I would doubtless have been just as 
comfortable, just as well contented, and no doubt much 
happier and freer from annoyance and care, especially if 
I had been provided with increased security in its reten- 
tion and control ; but since conditions are such that 
John Smith and Joe Jones can and have also become 
hundred-millionaires, I prefer to stand as high up on the 
ladder as they, in fact this is about the only satisfaction I 
can obtain, other than what a few million would insure." 

As with the socialists, so with the " government ab- 
sorptionists " (about the same thing in a different garb), 
there has been no tangible plan or method proposed by 
which their ends could be attained, other than by the un- 
timely and unjustifiable intervention of the vis major, an 
expedient alike hostile to both humanity and progress. 

What, it was asked of the votaries of this faith, is the 
first step you propose to take and what the intermediary 
agencies incident to the accomplishment of your ultimate 
end ? Do you propose that all enterprises and industries 
now owned by private individuals shall be turned over 
to the government and an adequate recompense given 
therefor ? If so what is the individual going to do with 
the value received in exchange ? Shall he bury it and 
start anew on a common level with all and devote his 
time and thought to the government shop, receiving 
therefor such articles of human production as he can 
eat and wear, and be allotted a house such as is sufficient 
alone to protect him from the cold, or shall he be forced 



104 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

to yield all his treasure to the coffers of the state, — his 
lots, his land, his houses, or his mines, — receiving no 
compensation for the previous efforts of his industry and 
toil, and be obliged to labor in the common throng on a 
level with and in pursuits as arduous as he who yields 
nothing to the state and whose past efforts have been un- 
availing to himself and of no good to society ; and if 
either of these, what shall be the first step taken to start 
the ball in motion ? 

Echo answers : We will " introduce a bill " — a thing 
easy of accomplishment when nothing else can be done. 
We will set forth in that bill the pronunciamento that 
all must deliver up their property to the state and 
receive therefor no compensation whatever ; on the pro- 
mulgation of which proclamation we expect to receive 
the plaudits of the world, sounded with such multi- 
tudinous vociferations that the reverberating echoes 
resounding from hilltop to hilltop will go thundering 
down the peaceful stream of time, to be reflected back 
with accelerated force and power, weighted with com- 
mingling sounds of universal praise and timely tenders of 
worldly wealth, until the only possible manner of avoid- 
ing the terrible catastrophe incident to a mad and fren- 
zied rush will be to convince the masses that it is useless 
for all to come at once, or in fact for any to come at all 
until the bill becomes a law, which it is sure to do prior 
to the time of the practical inauguration of the metemp- 
sychosis. 

Well, what is to be the wording of the bill, what its 
provisions in fact ; is it to begin with a " whereas " and 
end with a " what is it," and what is to be its middle ? Is 
it to be rushed right through, or debated in " Committee 
of the whole on the state of the Union," or what is to be 
done with it ? Is it to contain the pronunciamento that 



PHRONOCRACY 1 05 

all men are born free, equal, and possessed of certain 
inalienable rights ? Is it to conflict with the existing 
judicial opinion as to the federal constitution and render 
necessary the packing of the supreme bench ? Thus to 
the end is nothing tangible proposed because there is 
nothing tangible to propose — nothing regarding which 
any document can be drafted. The only hope for the 
introduction into society of any such system is the arbi- 
trament of force, the right of might, and this held to- 
gether and controlled by a military despot in whom all 
power must be centred and who could carry out any 
decree it matters not how violent ; the thing itself being 
in direct conflict with the end to be sought and desirable 
only on the theory that good could result from evil, that 
order could best be promoted by confusion, system by 
chaos — in a word, life from death, for any such condition 
would be social death and confusion worse confounded, 
sans top, sans bottom, sans everything save the rankest 
and most useless form of heterogeneity and confusion. 

It is seen that any effort to alter social conditions must 
proceed regularly and be bottomed on reason, aided by 
feasibility, supported by men of force, method, and char- 
acter ; hence its progress must necessarily be slow and 
tedious. As a glacier will move quite a distance in a cen- 
tury, so will the conditions of society gradually become 
affected by moderate innovations. The system of the 
United States government was for a century considered 
experimental, and may in fact yet prove to be such, un- 
less by the curtailment of the ballot better conditions 
are adopted. Men of no education and no property 
elect to office representatives of the same calibre, and 
hence public business becomes seriously affected by 
actual incompetency. As it requires some brains and 
education to write a resolution, so it requires some 



106 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

capacity to understand one when written, and as it 
requires prudence and sagacity to wield the affairs of 
state and men of property and credit to give it prestige 
and responsibility, so it must soon be necessary to pre- 
vent the alarming degeneracy that is admitted to be 
rapidly pervading the personnel of public assemblages ; 
and one of the greatest possible arguments for the cur- 
tailment of the ballot is the actual incompetency of many 
of the inmates of legislative assemblages because of the 
increasing prominence of the irresponsible and ignorant 
voter. 

Under such conditions it is vain to expect any conces- 
sion from the better classes to any modification of the 
social state. Millionaires can protect their property 
simply by the inherent force of the property itself, by 
buying favorable and thwarting unfavorable measures 
proposed by vicious legislators ; and so when the " con- 
servative compromise " is brought forth money may seek 
its downfall ; but such is the irresistible power of the reli- 
able middle classes that this will be impossible, and as 
time progresses, and as they gain in representation, they 
may become sufficiently the master of the situation to 
control the destinies of the future state. The single-tax 
men or land confiscationists are ahead of the others 
both in intelligence and in the reasonableness of their 
propositions. They have elected no representatives to 
Congress solely in the interests of their cause, and but 
few to any legislative assembly who had not other aims 
and affiliations, neither have they proposed in Congress 
any definite measure for which they asked the support of 
their associates. 

They do not assert their faith boldly as confiscators 
of land, as the Democrats will not boldly assert their 
free-trade predilections and preferences ; the former 



PHRONOCRACY 107 

carry a mask called " single tax," and the latter " tariff 
reform," both misleading and disingenuous. The single- 
tax men, however, are in a position to draft a bill or to 
propose legislation containing a declaration that all 
existing methods of taxation should be abolished and a 
certain levy placed in lieu of all on land values, but 
what is the rate to be ? Their proposition in effect is 
that land shall be taxed practically to " its full rental 
value," but this term in a bill drafted, introduced, and 
referred, before it reached the voting stages, and had 
been the victim of amendments, would look rather vague 
and indefinite. It really means that land should be con- 
fiscated, but the tax term is milder, it becomes the mouth 
better. It will not do to say the land should be taxed 
five per cent., or ten per cent., or any fixed per cent., 
because all land does not possess the same rental value, 
and whilst any certain levy would confiscate some, it 
would not answer the purpose, because it would not con- 
fiscate all. To have passed a bill containing no more 
definite provision than " to full rental value," or even a 
percentage of rental value, would have been the instru- 
ment and means of ceaseless bickering and dispute 
between assessor and occupant as to what was rental 
value, and would be indeed as utterly impracticable as is 
the whole scheme irrational. It sounds well enough to 
talk about man's equal right to natural opportunity and 
" a' that ' and " a' that " ; that the earth belongs in 
usufruct to the people, and " a' that " ; that man is enti- 
tled to what he produces — to the fruits of his own toil, 
and " a' that " ; that labor is paid out of its own product, 
and " a' that " and " a' that," most of which are apho- 
risms as old as the adamantine hills, and, with slight 
modifications, as true as they are ancient ; but how are 
they to be accomplished by land confiscation ? That 



108 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

labor is paid out of its own products, it is useless to deny. 
Every one will admit— at least all should admit— that in 
the process that is carried out in the conversion of a 
piece of crude iron ore, worth comparatively nothing, 
through its many stages, till it assumes the form, the 
polish, and elasticity of a watch spring, in which state 
it is worth more than its weight in gold, the labor ex- 
pended is paid, though of course indirectly, out of the 
thing that is produced. To deny this would be to argue 
as irrationally as to maintain that " land confiscation " 
is either just, reasonable, practical, or efficacious in 
accomplishing any good to the world. But as with all 
other propagandisms, though in this not as lamentably, 
even the advocates themselves fail to propose any defi- 
nite measure. They do not say " Be it enacted thus and 
so," so that the people can get at just the thing they 
seek. Generalizations could have been prated about till 
the crack of doom, and had the American colonists of 
King George III. never got down to hard-pan and 
issued their pronunciamento in certain exact words and 
phrases meaning certain things, backed with an inflexi- 
ble desire and an indomitable purpose to put the meaning 
of that thing through though they should drink their 
brother's blood,- the grand confederacy of sovereign stars, 
than which none more glorious ever shone in the galaxy 
of nations that now stretch from ocean to ocean, and 
ere long may stretch from the isthmus to the pole, com- 
prising the natural geographical limits of the greatest 
nation on earth, might never have been independent ; 
and so likewise will all generalizations which, though 
pleasing to the ear, always fail of any practical good. 
The land confiscationists, however, in adopting for 
their shibboleth " single tax," appeal forcibly to those 
who seek simplicity in all governmental affairs, which is 



PH RON OC RACY IO9 

in fact the tendency of all thought relative to govern- 
ment ; yet it is not the shadow that weighs, it is the 
substance, and if the substance is too transparent to 
cast a shadow it amounts to nothing. If single tax 
could be fully applied, and result only in simplicity, the 
game is not worth the candle, for greater simplicity 
could be obtained by other less objectionable methods. 
The single-tax men, too, hoot at the idea that all they 
claim for it is simplicity, for they frankly admit that in 
the interest of simplicity alone it would be useless to ad- 
vocate such a radical upturning of the world's social 
affairs ; that what they desire is something to benefit the 
people and secure a more equitable distribution of the 
products of human labor, and they favor that thing 
which will accomplish that end, and it matters not how 
complicated (for people can understand anything that 
people can propose), and that they oppose anything that 
fails of this accomplishment, it matters not how simple. 
It takes a machine somewhat complicated to reap wheat 
and bind it into sheaves and to thresh out the grain after 
the sheaves are bound, but a machine that will do this 
work effectively, though complicated, is not to be com- 
pared with one that will not, though simple ; hence it is 
the end, not the means, if the end is fair, just, and hon- 
orable by any means that are equally so. 

Since nothing has been definitely brought forth by any 
of the reformers, the leaders of the most liberal and 
conservative of each should conclude to concentrate on 
the regulation of the extremes, thus letting the mean 
take care of itself. Men may have an abundance, but not 
a redimdance. 

Men who have nothing and know nothing shall have no 
voice in the affairs of government, but all shall have an 
opportunity. 



IIO POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

They should, therefore, propose that the following 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
be adopted : 

" Congress shall have power to impose a rate of taxation 
on every one thousand dollars of individual property equal 
to the one hundred-thousandth part of the total value of the 
property, the same to be uniform and invariable throughout 
the United States ; and to prescribe as a condition for suf- 
frage both an educational and a property qualification ', the 
former to be the ability to speak, read, and write the English 
language, and the latter to be the ownership of real property 
or government bonds to an amount not less than five hundred 
dollars j and to pass such laws as may be necessary to carry 
the provisions of this amendment into effect." 

This is the key to the whole situation and the founda- 
tion for the whole structure ; it is the beginning, the 
middle, and the ending. 

All advocates of reform have but to vote for, and sup- 
port for the Federal Congress and for State Legislatures, 
men pledged to the support of this amendment. No 
other officials are necessary. The amendment could be 
adopted and become law if ratified by three fourths of 
the State Legislatures and by two thirds of their delega- 
tions in Congress — that is, in the way the Constitution 
itself provides, and when adopted it would be a part of 
the supreme law of the land, adopted in the only lawful 
way, and a party called the " Phronocratic or Conserva- 
tive " should make it the keystone to its creed. The 
recommendation of the said amendment is thought 
proper in view of the fact that many cherish the belief 
that Congress has not the power, without an amend- 
ment, to impose such a tax or to pass laws in pursuance 
thereof ; that a simple act of Congress passed by the 
usual majority might be unconstitutional and void, but 



PHRONOCRACY 1 1 1 

that by an amendment the right would become funda- 
mental and unquestioned, and that, pending its consid- 
eration and ratification by the States, its provisions could 
be scrutinized with care and circumspection and subse- 
quent enactments necessary to carry its provisions into 
effect could be calmly considered and planned. 

It is in no case to be applied to corporations, but 
solely to the individual holdings in those corporations, 
on the basis of the value of the stock and bonds held by 
individuals therein. The reason for its non-application 
to corporations is obvious, conclusive, and clear, to wit : 
In placing a check on the concentration of wealth it is 
not in any sense in keeping with the progress of the 
times nor apace with the advancing tendencies of modern 
civilization to hamper or oppress enterprise. Great un- 
dertakings are not only desirable but necessary. Long 
lines of railways have to be projected and built ; canal 
and waterways, bridges and highways, tunnels and sub- 
ways all have to be constructed, and it requires wealth 
aggregating countless millions to accomplish these works. 
Many individual properties cost over one hundred mil- 
lion dollars, and cannot be created without this expen- 
diture, and civilization cannot go on without their 
creation ; the wants and needs of the people demand 
them, and go they must, and will. They cannot be 
divided into separate properties of less value ; hence 
means must be at hand by which they can not only be 
constructed, but controlled and operated as an entirety, 
as a whole ; and this means is the corporation, on the 
multiplication or concentration of the capital" in which 
there need be no limit whatsoever. One corporation 
might own the railways of the world, the magnitude and 
extent of which in America alone in 1890 was such as to 
maintain a bonded indebtedness of about five billion 



112 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

dollars and a share capital of variable valuation of about 
the same amount, both of which at a par valuation would 
amount to ten billion of dollars, or in 1890 about one 
sixth of the entire assessable property of the great Repub- 
lic, representing in production the aggregated labor of 
ten million men. As strange and as anomalous as at 
first view it might appear, it is actually thought better 
and more desirable — more in keeping with popular de- 
mand and efficient public service — that (under the pro- 
posed system of taxation) all this property should be 
owned by a single rather than by many corporations ; but 
in said corporation there would be many individual 
owners. In concentration there is both efficiency and 
power, and the baneful effects of monopolistic organiza- 
tion is greatly mitigated and assuaged if the said organi- 
zation must of necessity be owned by many individuals 
rather than by a few or by a single individual. In other 
words, it is found to be absolutely necessary to the 
progress of society, that organizations of a monopolistic 
nature must exist, otherwise enterprises of " great pith and 
moment " would, in truth " with this regard, their currents 
turn away and lose not only the name but the very fact 
of action." It is, however, recommended that these 
grand enterprises shall to the greatest extent possible be 
popularly owned ; that they must be owned by as many 
individuals as is consistent with proper and efficient 
direction, management, and control, and not by as few 
as possible to the utmost limit of the " freeze-out process " 
of the avaricious managers. 

It is undoubted that a board of directors chosen by a 
hundred shareholders can be as efficient and reliable as 
those chosen by a single holder of the bare majority, and 
the officers and agents chosen by these boards would be 
as assiduously devoted to the interests of these trusts as 



PHRONOCRACY I I 3 

those elected by and under the mandate of the one-man 
power ; in fact, better and more efficient could the man- 
agement of such corporations become because of the 
fact that there would be no absolute guaranty of perpet- 
ual succession, such as under individual control of ma- 
jorities is usually assured by superserviceableness and 
intrigue against the interest of minorities. It has been 
proposed to allow to no stockholder more than one vote. 
This would tend to lessen autocratic control, but would 
in no way reach the question of colossal individual ac- 
cumulations, nor promote the principle of popular own- 
ership, or that a tax rate proportionate to property is the 
best tax rate on earth. It is observed, too, that small 
holders of corporate interests are in the main more con- 
servative than the large holders ; in fact, the possession 
of any property causes prudential care and conservative 
operation, which position may be exclusively demon- 
strated in the establishment of a property qualification, 
though small, for the exercise of suffrage. The very fact 
of owning something begets a disposition to protect that 
something, and the man who becomes eligible to citizen- 
ship by the possession of five hundred dollars will be as 
prudent and as painstaking, as desirous of securing 
reliable men and of strengthening the public faith, as is 
the owner of his millions. Where the treasure is there 
the heart is, and a poor man's five hundred dollars 
representing, as it in most cases would, a greater part of 
his worldly goods than the rich man's million does of 
his worldly goods, the former would be on the average 
more prudent and conservative and less disposed to enter 
into schemes of profligacy, extravagance, and waste than 
the latter. 

There is a vast difference between him who possesses 

something, and hopes to retain and increase it, and him 

8 



114 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

who has nothing, and has no hope of ever gaining any- 
thing. The former is prudent and the latter reckless, or 
the one fit for citizenship and the other not. As in the 
affairs of government, so in those of the great corpora- 
tions. There would be a wholesome check placed upon 
recklessness and extravagance, the vaulting ambition 
would less often overleap itself, earnings would be more 
properly applied toward the payment of dividends than 
to extravagant salaries to ornamental presidents, who in 
most cases are the proteges of the owners of the bare 
majority and often share their receipts therewith. 
Neither to so great an extent could needless branches 
and appendages be constructed to fatten the purse of the 
contractor, who is often a partner with the officers in 
control. Furthermore, and to greater advantage still, 
popular ownership would beget popular contentment 
and insure a management more in conformity with the 
popular weal. On the theory that it is more in the in- 
terest of localities that representatives in Congress 
should be chosen from among their own people, and 
in numbers representing about one for every thirty thou- 
sand votes, rather than to have one man run the entire 
legislation of the country, so likewise would it be found 
better that monopolistic enterprises should be more 
popularly owned and governed and operated by offi- 
cials chosen by the diversified interests. In keeping 
with this very principle one of the greatest American 
magnates once sold a large part of his interest in one of 
the greatest corporations, believing, yea, knowing, that a 
more popular ownership would beget popular content- 
ment, and popular contentment would avoid trouble 
resulting from blackmailing legislation and other schemes 
of popular revenge ; also that it would tend to increase 
popular patronage, and consequently perhaps increase 



PHRONOCRACY 1 1 5 

the value of what he retained more than the sacrifices 
consequent upon disposition and sale : and thus, in fact, 
it is said to have resulted. 

But whether or not it be to the interest of the great 
monied magnates to thus placate the public, is not the 
point for discussion, but whether or not it is in the inter- 
est of the public that great and necessarily monopolistic 
corporations should be as far as practicable more popu- 
larly owned, is the question, if indeed there can be any 
question about a matter so self-evident and reasonable. 
Most of the riches resulting from unearned increment 
are gained in enterprises of such magnitude as to be 
practically exempt from competition by reason of inac- 
cessibility by any competitive establishments, and if 
these are once started, and bid fair to continue, such is 
the advantage to both of concentration and consolida- 
tion that they are merged into one ; the anaconda swal- 
lows the elephant, and then lies down to digest its meal, 
whilst the public continue of necessity to patronize the 
monster because they can do nothing else. 

It, however, being evident that monopolistic enter- 
prises are necessary — in fact, almost the unavoidable 
outcome of the world's affairs, — and that from enterprises 
of this character large unearned increment will unavoida- 
bly be acquired in any prosperous state or community ; 
now, therefore, the equally unavoidable conclusion, 
though held in the dark for thousands of years, must 
be reached, viz. : we will distribute that increment as 
widely as we can, or, in other words, we will cause him 
who has most of it to contribute to the State that sup- 
ports it and guarantees his interest, to an extent pro- 
portionate to his ability ; the necessary result of which 
will be that when he acquires a certain limit, outgo 
will equal income, and he can acquire no more, giving 



Il6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

increased opportunity to his friends just behind and 
their friends and their friends. 

" Extremes beget limitations" hence the force of the 
expression : 

" That I am wretched, 
Makes thee the happier : — Heavens deal so still ! 
Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, 
That slaves your ordinance, that will not see 
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly ; 
So distribution should undo excess^ 
And each man have enough" 



CHAPTER VI. 

Practical application of the cumulative tax— Support government in 
proportion to man's ability — And no property or no knowledge, 
no vote— Takes burden off of the weak and puts it on the strong- 
Equity and efficiency of assessment— Limits all individual estates 
to about four million— Tax collectors in congressional districts : 
their method of assessment — Necessity of not limiting corpora- 
tions— " Watering " stock not specially objectionable, but divi- 
sion of ownership vital. 

" Life is but a narrow veil between the cold and bar- 
ren peaks of two eternities." 

Why, therefore, should any man desire to own the 
earth ? If he had it all he would yet be poor. Why 
should he desire more than will insure comfort, luxury, 
and even a fair compensation for cupidity and greed be- 
sides, for more than that but burthens him ? 

Why should not the brain that is capable of wresting 
from the world so much of its treasure, when a suffi- 
ciency has been obtained, be willing to devote its opera- 
tions to research into the fathomless abyss of the great 
unknown and as yet unknowable ? 

Who knows or can demonstrate to the contrary 
that, "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, 
so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no 
more." 

Why, therefore, should there not exist less unremitting 
strife and more humanity in the world ? In brief and 
in fact, since an abundance is enough, why want more ? 

117 



Il8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

To finite minds the end is but to die, yes, 

" But to die, and go we know not where, 
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot : 
This sensible warm motion to become 
A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit 
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice ; 
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, 
And blown with restless violence about 
The pendent world." 

O thou impenetrable and unknown ; thou inscrutable 
mystery that art veiled in night ; be thy ultimate the 
earth, or heaven, or hell — 't is all beyond our ken ! 
" Come, come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts," 
open this blinded eye, make keen and capable this nar- 
row faculty of human comprehension, and proclaim what 
was, what is, and what is yet to be ; make intelligible and 
clear the object, the purpose, and the end of life, the 
omniscient motive and intent of this and that and these 
— of the Universe, the earth, the air, and the wild 
tempestuous seas ! But to the issue. 

The very fact that individuals were required to con- 
tribute to government in proportion to their ability, and 
that those who contributed nothing could have no voice, 
would be of itself not only one of the greatest possible 
bulwarks to the continued ascendancy of republican in- 
stitutions in America, but the monarchies of the world 
would stand aghast and trembling, so that, as soon as it 
was fully realized that thereby security could exist with- 
out a king, instead of saying " The king is dead, long 
live the king," it would be thought quite as safe to say, 
" The man we, who own the property of the state, have 
chosen to do our will, is dead, let the man we have 
chosen to succeed him take his place." Then empires 
would begin to tumble like meteors in the night, with 
scarce that faint effulgence which, against even the dark 



PHRONOCRACY 1 1 9 

background of centuries of ignorance and vice, would be 
necessary to make their presence known. 

The institution of this protective condition would 
likewise strengthen property rights, increase domestic 
security, and, by reason of lifting the burthen off of the 
shoulders of the weak and placing it upon the heads of 
the strong, the oppressed would be given greater oppor- 
tunity ; in fact, as great as could be considered consist- 
ent with man's right to own property at all (which is 
admitted), and the strong would not be unjustly op- 
pressed. The conditions now and heretofore existing in 
society are and have been just the reverse of this. The 
rich men, by reason of their faculty for secretiveness, 
and for the further reason that it is more difficult to 
count ten million grains than ten thousand grains, and 
by reason of their influence upon the assessor as to prop- 
erty not registered, usually pay a tax that is proportion- 
ately as small as their estates are great, and, the greater 
the estate the less proportionably it contributes, whilst 
the small home of the widow, the trust bonds of the in- 
fant, and the small accumulations of the aged and 
decrepit, are taxed full up and ofttimes excessively. 

This all admit to be wrong, and even those who oppose 
the cumulative rate upon the flimsy pretext that even then 
some property would be secreted, will be obliged to admit 
that the said cumulative rate on what is found and assessed 
would, to a great degree, compensate the state for that 
which is secreted. 

In other words, if, as in the present, a man with five 
million dollars could secrete two and a half million dollars 
and pay about one dollar per hundred on the balance, he 
would really be paying only about the half of one per 
cent, on the whole, but if, under the cumulative-rate tax 
(notwithstanding the greatly improved system of assess- 



120 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ment), he should yet secrete two and a half millions, his 
rate would still be two and a half per cent., or he would 
be contributing just live times as much to the state as 
under the present condition of affairs. 

The increased facilities for assessments would render 
secretiveness much more difficult, and there can be im- 
posed for it very severe penalties, as will hereafter be 
explained. 

The first and most important consideration is : What 
amount of money will the cumulative tax secure to the 
treasury of the country ; however, this cuts no figure as 
to the question of sufficiency or insufficiency, because 
horizontal percentage of increase and reduction can be 
fully arranged. There is no way of getting at the thing 
with absolute accuracy, because the number of large 
estates relatively to the small cannot be definitely ascer- 
tained. The question as to what will be done with the 
excess of the estates of very rich individuals will also 
appear as an objection, though not serious. 

At one cent on each one thousand, or a rate equalling 
the one hundred-thousandth part of the estate, and esti- 
mating five per cent, as the income that maintains estates 
at par, it is clear that outgo would equal income, allowing 
something for local assessment, when the fortune equals 
about four million dollars ; in fact, the net income from 
three millions would be about as much as from four. A 
man could, of course, keep all he could pay taxes on, but 
if he kept much more than three million dollars he would 
soon be running in debt, and the state would gradually 
absorb the excess, so that, without any mincing of words, 
of sugar-coated terms, like the tariff-reform free-traders 
or the single-tax land-confiscationists use, it is boldly ad- 
mitted that all excess would be confiscated and the work 
would be boldly carried out. 



PHRONOCRACY 121 

Of course the natural tendency of this would be to 
encourage the one-hundred-millionaires to disgorge, to 
give to their uncles, their cousins, and their aunts large 
amounts of property when it was evident that the cumu- 
lative system was in fact to be enforced, rather than 
permit the state to own it, on the theory that blood is 
thicker than water, — to give to their kin rather than to 
their country. Of course the government has no power 
to say that this should not be done, especially if done 
before the system took effect ; even thereafter it would 
not be necessary to say that a man should not be a ben- 
efactor to his friends, especially to his relatives, rather 
than be a benefactor to the state. A one-hundred-mil- 
lion-dollar man would have to divide among thirty or 
forty people before either would have an estate that 
would be small enough (how singular the term) to yield 
them any net profits, and a two-hundred-million-dollar 
man would have to divide among about one hundred 
before his estate would be small enough to be of much 
value to any, and since this would spread the thing out 
into lots of fifties and hundreds, it would effect of itself 
a tolerably good division and still force these fortunate 
relatives to contribute in the ratio of their ability — (the 
essence of the whole scheme and the key to equitable distribu- 
tion and the only key). So why not let the poor kin have 
it ? Again, it would be urged that one-hundred-million- 
aires would temporarily transfer their property to their 
uncles, their cousins, their sisters, and their aunts just 
prior to and pending the date of assessment, with a tacit 
agreement that it should be re-transferred as soon as 
assessment-day is over ; or they would pay to different 
people, for example, their clerks and other flunkies, cer- 
tain small salaries to consent to have the property assessed 
in their names, but with the understanding that the in- 



122 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

come should be paid or given back to the original one- 
hundred-millionaire. This could be obviated in several 
ways ; but if it could not be obviated at all, what pleasure 
or what object would any individual have in accumulat- 
ing more property than he could ever possibly need if he 
had to use such subterfuges to retain it, and subject 
himself to the great probability of being detected, in 
which case he might lose all, even the very liberal amount 
that he could own and handle without any subterfuge, 
and also to liability to arrest and imprisonment besides. 
Of the most obdurate objector it could be asked : Would 
not these penalties and the maintenance of the necessary 
machinery by which to evade the law at least deter, if it 
did not absolutely prevent, men from acquiring such use- 
less property as to render evasion necessary, and to the 
extent that it did deter them, would it not be the end in 
part at least attained ? Such could be the methods of 
assessment that, notwithstanding a very dubious desire 
to do so, it would not be possible to succeed very well, 
and, considering the penalties, the game would not be 
worth the candle, and it would not in practice be at- 
tempted to any great or even to an appreciable extent. 
The first step to be taken would be to propose the 
amendment to the Federal Constitution, so as to remove 
all doubt as to the power of the general government to 
impose a cumulative rate of taxation, and as it would 
require the sanction of three fourths of the State Legis- 
latures and two thirds of their delegations in Congress, 
its adoption would be necessarily slow, but its intro- 
duction would command immediate attention, and the 
monster magnates would begin to think. A few might con- 
clude that the thing was reasonably fair and just anyhow, 
and that, since it was coupled with a proposition prevent- 
ing the waifs and irresponsibles of the community from 



PHRONOCRACY 1 23 

having any voice in governments, giving the machine 
over into the hands of those only who knew something 
and owned something, thus adding to the security and 
the uninterrupted enjoyment of the competency, yea, the 
abundance, that remained, why not let the dance go on ? 
Some might be satisfied in the reflection that they would 
be as rich as any other man, and they would have enough, 
and it would not be so bad after all. It is astonishing 
how human character is affected by the removal of the 
desire to excel. 

To excel another man any man might desire a billion, 
when if no man could excel him he would be content 
with only a million, or rather with that amount which 
would insure absolute protection against want and enable 
him to enjoy such luxury as he desired in company with 
his family. The difficulty would not exist in the oppo- 
sition of the great millionaires, if so their numerical 
strength would be comparatively so small that it could 
not delay, much less thwart, the purposes of the cumula- 
tive principle. The number whose estates would be 
materially affected, that is, the number of estates which, 
under the cumulative rate, would be called upon to pay 
more than their accustomed contributions, would be 
small ; hence, aside from their general recognition of the 
eternal fitness of the thing, the middle classes, or the 
reputable citizens with moderate yet comfortable estates, 
should be almost unanimously in its favor. 

The proposition would have coupled and indissolubly 
linked with it its proper counterpoise, its compensating 
advantage, to wit : " qualification for suffrage." And 
just here is where the shoe will pinch. So abominably 
promiscuous has become the suffrage system of the 
United States, and so corrupt and mischievous its prac- 
tices, that almost the entire machinery of government 



124 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

has been permitted to drift into the hands of professional 
politicians and charlatans ; in fact, except on great oc- 
casions, such as presidential elections and heated contests 
for the larger offices, the commercial population takes 
no interest in politics, knowing as they do that the 
bosses of the lower wards and the henchmen under 
them — both equally corrupt and void of any principle 
save the most questionable and devious means of secur- 
ing the success of their candidates — will contiol the 
election, it matters not how unjustly, whether they vote 
or not. 

The proposition, therefore, would receive the bitter 
opposition of both the professional politician and his 
henchmen, both utterly unfitted to wield the destinies of 
the state, yet both hitherto essential to the success of any 
candidate or the establishment of any principle, 

It is evident where the qualification condition would 
disfranchise ten voters in the slums of Chicago and New 
York and ten negroes in every State of the South (both 
classes as utterly unfit for suffrage as the blackest cohorts 
of the prince of darkness would be to a seat in Heaven 
beside our Lord and Saviour), it would perhaps not dis- 
franchise more than one or possibly two in the prosper- 
ous rural districts and smaller towns of the North, East, 
and West, and perhaps a smaller proportion of the white 
population of the South, and it is this portion of the 
citizens, together with the conservative middle classes 
of all the cities in the country, that must ultimately ex- 
terminate the political bum, the parasite and boodler of 
the great metropolitan centres, and the voodooistic African 
barbarian of the sunlit South. The party shibboleth, as 
stated, should be " cumulative taxation and voting quali- 
fication," " North American annexation," and " anti- 
centralization," to secure which the adoption of the 



PHRONOCRACY 125 

amendment making sure the right of Congress to impose 
it would be the first consideration. 

To do this would be required only Congressmen and 
State Legislatures, and for which positions the support of 
all friends of reform should be pledged. The amend- 
ment should be called the " conservative amendment," 
because it looks for support to the conservative middle- 
men of all parties — to those who think that the conser- 
vative mean is better than either extreme. 

Of course prior to the passage of the amendment it 
would be useless to propose incidental legislation, but 
for the better understanding of the people a few of the 
principal proposed enactments to follow its adoption 
could be made known, though of course until the fact 
was once established, it would not be possible to pre- 
arrange all the minor details, any more than it would be 
possible to say just what the exact height of a child 
would be when grown to maturity, before the child was 
born. Incidental legislation for the purpose of improv- 
ing the system could be passed almost every year, just as 
enactments are currently passed as to the application of 
the tariff and decisions of the treasury called for even 
pending the annual meetings of Congress. Coupled with 
the general arguments offered in support of the amend- 
ment, it might be given out to the people that certain 
primary acts would be passed covering the principal fea- 
tures of the practical operation and such alone as were 
necessary to insure its unquestioned feasibility. Still, as 
to the practical carrying out of the measure there can 
not be the slightest doubt even in the minds of the most 
violent of its opponents. In the first place there would 
have to be created by the general government an official 
to be known as the " collector of revenue." There would 
perhaps have to be one of these for each congressional 



126 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

district in the country, and the apportionment of districts 
could be arranged on the basis of the qualified voter. 
This collector, like the Congressmen, should be elected 
by the people, but should be removable by the President 
if in the latter's opinion he should be negligent, dishon- 
est, or incompetent ; but the successor should be likewise 
chosen by the people, so that whilst the President could 
destroy he could not create this official. 

The same also should apply to postmasters; they should 
be elected by the people in the towns, cities, or localities 
in which they exercise their functions, and should like- 
wise be removable by the President for cause to him 
deemed sufficient, in which case the people would choose 
his successor. This power of removal would be neces- 
sary in view of the fact that the business both of the 
collector and postmaster would be so closely connected 
with that of the general government that if from obsti- 
nacy, caused by hostility to an administration of the 
federal government opposed to his own politics, or from 
incompetency or from neglect, any such officer should 
mar the efficiency of the service, it would be but right 
that he should be removed, providing always that the 
people name his successor. This successor, being mind- 
ful of the causes that prompted the removal of his prede- 
cessor, would of course exert his efforts to remedy same, 
so that it would very rarely occur that either a collector 
or a postmaster would be removed, it mattered not how 
adverse his politics might be to that of the dominant 
administration, and one removal by the President would 
be all-sufficient to correct the evil in his elected suc- 
cessor. All minor officers of the civil service that cannot, 
in the nature of things, be elective, such as clerks in the 
departments at the capital and under the collector and 
postmaster in their respective districts and localities, 



PHRONOCRACY \2J 

should be thrown open to competitive examination. This 
system is opposed because it is said to be no test of a 
man's efficiency or competency to perform the duties of 
these offices that he should have his head crammed with 
miscellaneous information such as was necessarily the 
test that examiners would apply. It is agreed, however, 
that general information does no harm ; that a man who 
knows something is, other things being anything like 
equal, better in the performance of any duty than he 
who knows nothing. A letter carrier is none the less 
worthy or efficient because he might know the bounda- 
ries of every state or the identical confines of every 
nation of Europe, or the geographical location of every 
town or hamlet on either continent ; but it might be that 
he who knew not these things might be incompetent, it 
matters not what might be his " political 'fluence." The 
civil service under the Phronocratic proposition is to be 
as efficient as possible and wholly exempt from partisan 
control. The patronage of the President should be cur- 
tailed and all officials elected by the people within the 
limit of reason or possibility; and in view of the fact that 
the ballot may be curtailed and purified, that none save 
those who know something and own something can 
participate in elections, the better classes will assume 
control and in their hands can more safely be placed 
these increased elective opportunities. When the Presi- 
dent has chosen the heads of departments, or in other 
words his cabinet of counsellors and advisers, appointed 
foreign diplomats and the governors of the territories, he 
has done quite enough of this class of labor for the pay 
he is receiving, and it is thought best to relieve him of 
that annoyance. 

Aside from the collections that would have to be 
provided for in each district, the President would have to 



128 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

appoint one whose residence would be in New York 
City, whose duty it should be to assess all non-resident 
property located wheresoever — that is, the property of 
any foreigner located in the United States. 

The salary of the collector of taxes should be at all 
times the same as that of a Congressman, and that of all 
postmasters should be determined by the number of 
stamps cancelled at their offices, and where a reasonable 
percentage of this amount would not afford adequate 
compensation, the rate could be named by the Post- 
master-General. Every individual would have to be 
required to pay his government or cumulative tax in the 
district in which he resided, and to the collector of 
same. It would be the duty of the collector of every 
district to report property found in his own, to the col- 
lector of the district in which the owner resided ; for 
example, if a farm should be owned by John Smith in the 
sixth district of Illinois, and John himself should live in 
the fourth district of Ohio, or in a town in that district the 
collector of the sixth Illinois would be required to report 
to the collector of the fourth Ohio, the fact that he had dis- 
covered in his district 10,000 dollars worth, or whatever the 
amount might be, of property belonging to John Smith, 
resident of his, the fourth Ohio district, on receipt of 
which information, the collector of the fourth Ohio would 
proceed to add 10,000 dollars to John Smith's list of prop- 
erty and apply his cumulative tax thereto. So in all the 
districts, as to all the others, and as to foreigners, each 
collector would report to the one appointed by the presi- 
dent who resided in New York. It is useless for objec- 
tors to say that this could not be done because these 
objections are seen at a glance to be prompted by the 
wish, not by the thought, and even if a few thousand 
should be missed, what matters it when millions are 



PHRONOCRACY 1 29 

missed as it is, and must of necessity be under any system, 
because human affairs are not more perfect than human 
beings themselves, and they are not strong when too 
severely tempted. It is not a good argument against a 
thing to say : Oh, it is not absolutely perfect, what 
human thing is perfect ? 

It cannot be denied that this system of ascertaining 
and reporting individual property would be by far the 
best contrivance that has ever been invented, surpassing 
infinitely the cumbersome system of internal revenue, 
where an army of storekeepers, gaugers, marshals, deputy 
marshals, and others has to be maintained at an expense 
to the government in many cases more than the revenue 
derived therefrom, for the purpose of supervising and 
controlling the distillation of whiskey and most malt 
liquors. Furthermore, since States and localities have 
their respective local assessors and collect their revenue 
from the property (not from the trader and manufac- 
turer) of the country, the central government always 
cumulative, and the local usually direct, the two would 
be a great aid to each other and would usually reach 
very correct results. All corporations would be required 
to have some distinct central office, and this corporation 
(which as such would be exempt from government tax) 
would be required to report to the collector in the dis- 
trict in which its central office was situate, once each 
month if need be, the names of each individual and the 
amounts of stocks and bonds held by said individual 
during that month or other period to be named in that 
corporation. All companies should be obliged to have 
a register open to the inspection of the collector or 
his subordinates, containing a complete and accurate 
list, not only of the total capitalization of the com- 
pany, but the monthly average of shares held by each 
9 



130 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

individual, also the same as to bonds ; and each indi- 
vidual would be obliged to register both with the 
company and with the collector the exact number 
of bonds and shares of stock, and the amount of each 
that he held. Bonds payable to bearer should be none 
the less subject to registration, and any shares or bonds 
held that were not thus registered, should have no 
binding force against the corporation, and should be 
subject to confiscation by the government, simply on 
proof of non-registry for two consecutive offences. To 
registration objection would be urged on the ground of 
detail, labor, espionage, and the like, but it would cer- 
tainly be sufficiently practicable to cause great good ; 
and even if it should merit these objections, would not 
the benefit outweigh the burden ? Why should property 
be owned that cannot be listed ? List it and tax it and 
that cumulatively too ! Stock- and bondholders would be 
thus obliged, or incur great risk, to register their hold- 
ings both with the company on its books and with the 
collector in the district of its central office on his books, 
and in the event of failure upon the part of the company 
to keep this registry open when desired to the inspection 
of the collector, its charter could be at once annulled 
and its property offered for sale, the proceeds of 
which sale would be divided among the stock- and 
bondholders (the latter holding precedence to the par 
value of their bonds) on the basis of the last complete 
registry shown by the books of the collector. The indi- 
vidual for failure to register with the collector after 
two months from the date in which he acquired his 
holdings, could not only be subject to entire con- 
fiscation, but to criminal penalty as well, the latter to 
be determined by trial before the United States judge 
in the district in which the offender resided. These 



PHRONOCRACY 131 

penalties could be made to fit the conditions as expe- 
rience would suggest. 

The confiscation, however, could be summarily de- 
clared by the collector and the possessor, could only be 
reinstated by appeal to the federal courts, which should, 
in determining his case, take into consideration only the 
question whether or not the failure to register was the 
result of ignorance, error, or neglect, or of wilful intent 
to secrete his property ; if the latter, there would be no 
remedy, and the former excuse could not be urged but 
once. If any individual had made temporary transfer to 
any other individual for the purpose of evading the 
cumulative rate, on conviction before the United States 
judge he could be made liable to imprisonment of his 
person, and forfeiture of his estate as occasion might 
require. 

Stock in corporations is usually transferred only on 
the books of the company, but it is sometimes, for specu- 
lative purposes, not entered thereon because of incon- 
venience. The plan required for the application of the 
government's cumulative rate would force this registry, 
not alone of stock but bonds, which would have a most 
salutary effect in curtailing wild and ruinous specula- 
tion, and in elevating the character and tone of all stock 
exchanges ; furthermore, it would act as a protection 
for the conservative investor against the reckless specu- 
lation of the ordinary stock gambler ; it would prevent 
large and rapid exchanges for purely speculative pur- 
poses, hence give steadiness and tone to the markets of 
the country. The system of enforced registration has 
been in effect in England for many years, and there 
works well and practically. In fact there is nothing im- 
practicable about it, though tl^ose opposed to the system 
will try to make the people believe that changes and 



132 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

transfers are so rapid that they could not be registered 
to the extent required by the provisions of these laws, 
to which it may be replied, " Then let them be a little 
slower," and we will all try to live. Forcing a man to 
register what he owns is no great hardship, and it is a 
simple duty that he owes to the state and to the mercan- 
tile community. The adoption of the system would 
aid materially the ascertainment of a man's commercial 
standing, hence determine to a large extent his credit in 
his business. In making up individual returns, they 
should be permitted to deduct from their total any in- 
debtedness they might owe, provided the party to whom 
it was owing added the same to his returns. Since 
corporations in their individual capacity would pay no 
tax to the government collector, but would simply be 
obligated to show up the exact holdings of individuals, 
if any individual should seek to reduce his returns by 
reason of a debt due to a corporation, the latter would 
be obliged to produce evidence of the indebtedness if 
required by the assessor, and show that it gave to the 
individual ample and sufficient value for the said obliga- 
tion, and the individual would be obliged to show proper 
and regular disposition of that value to the satisfaction 
of the collector before it would be deductable from his 
full list of property. What corporations would owe or 
what they would own matters not, because they would 
not be assessed, and what they owed or what they 
owned would determine the value of the stock on which 
the individual would pay tax, and the value of their 
bonds would not be difficult of determination. The 
corporation should, when required, show to the col- 
lector a list of its bills payable and to whom due, 
and if any individual owned such note and failed 
to report it, it should be liable to confiscation. Notes 



PHRONOCRACV 1 33 

or obligations between corporations themselves would 
be of no consequence whatever, because the govern- 
ment would have to do only with individuals, and 
the holdings of corporations, or the debts of corpora- 
tions, i. e., the floating debts, would affect the value 
either by increase or decrease of the stock held by 
individuals. This individual restriction will not hamper 
enterprise, but simply give more people an opportunity 
to avail themselves of the profits of enterprises essen- 
tially monopolistic in their nature, and afford the means 
whereby individuals could support the government in 
proportion to their ability. If the conservative people 
consider the thing right in principle, details as to listing 
and espionage will be easily arranged. 

The necessity of non-limitation of corporate concen- 
tration is seen in many enterprises. For example, the 
bridge across the East River between New York and 
Brooklyn, the magnificent structure completed in 1890 
across the Firth of Forth in Scotland, the Saint Gothard 
Tunnel under the snow-crowned Alps, and many other 
instances are at hand, and as civilization progresses these 
will be extended both in number and magnitude. 

It may be possible some day to bridge the Atlantic 
Ocean, and if so why not do it ? There was a time when 
it was thought impossible to cable it, but that time has 
long since passed. It is by no means impossible that 
some day a single corporation may exist with a capital 
of ten billions of dollars ; in fact, if the railways of 
America had been, in 1890, owned by one company 
(and with cumulative taxation why not ?), they would 
have represented about ten billion, and would perhaps 
be operated more cheaply and expeditiously than now. 

There is no denying the fact that increased capital 
increases facility, and that increased facility increases 



134 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

cheapness as well as expedition, hence it is actually 
better to operate large enterprises under one head than 
under several heads. This is forcibly shown in the case 
of the American Standard Oil monopoly. This institu- 
tion, by dint of good management and opportune condi- 
tions, secured such concentration of capital as to enable 
it to practically command the railway rates of freight on 
its products, and when these became inadequate it con- 
structed its own pipeways, thus possessing itself with 
facilities for transportation and distribution in excess of 
all competition, which resulted in colossal fortunes to 
the few individuals, and that, too, in the face of an actual 
reduction to the consumer of the price of the com- 
modity ; so that in this case, as in many others if man- 
aged in the same way, increased facilities, consequent 
solely and alone on concentrated wealth, not only result 
in colossal fortunes to their projectors but at the same 
time reduce the price to the consumer. It cannot be 
successfully urged that this institution is a great detri- 
ment to society, and if that condition had existed by 
which its members, who were made one-hundred-million- 
aires, had been obliged to contribute to government in 
proportion to their ability they would not have been very 
seriously oppressed and many more individuals would 
have participated in the profits. It may be urged that 
great enterprises would never be constructed but for the 
enterprise of a few very rich men, that the public purse 
will never open to any great project, and that if the purse 
of great individual capitalists was closed or emptied by 
government there would be no great enterprises. It is a 
sufficient answer to this to say that if the public don't 
care sufficiently for an enterprise to contribute toward or 
to invest in a company that seeks to put it forward, then 
the public will not grieve much by reason of its non-ex- 



PHRONOCRACY 1 35 

istence, and to permit these things to be, just to make 
the rich richer when the public is indifferent, is a policy 
that may soon be abandoned, be it said to the good sense 
and humanitarianism of the conservatives of the earth. 
Things are not as they used to be. Once kings held in 
their hands the lives of their subjects, now the subjects 
hold in their hands the destinies if not the lives of the 
kings. " A man can fish with a worm that has fed of a 
king and then eat of the fish that has fed of that worm." 
The proposition that great enterprises will not go on is 
by no means proven ; it is a simple dogmatic assertion, 
and like all assertions unsupported by evidence, affects 
only the character of those who utter them. It is found 
that popular investment in corporations is largely, if not 
wholly, withheld by reason of the very fact that some of 
the individuals are rich enough to obtain complete con- 
trol, which usually results in the destruction of the small 
investor. With one man who owns fifty-one per cent., 
the hundred men who hold together forty-nine have prac- 
tically no voice. They' can not elect a single director nor 
have any voice in the management whatever, yet it would 
not do to urge that majorities should not control, because 
that would in fact check enterprise and prevent concen- 
tration on anything or in any direction ; in other words, 
discontented minorities would be forever interfering 
with the business of the organizations, creating discord 
and confusion which must inevitably so hamper the 
progress of the enterprise as to render its business un- 
profitable, it matters not how favorable its opportunities ; 
or, in other words, that a house divided against itself 
must fall. It is therefore futile to assume that majorities 
should not control. By-laws have been adopted by some 
corporations requiring a two-third vote to accomplish the 
election of a director or to determine any policy, but this 



I36 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

and similar concessions to the minority invoke a great 
injustice to the majority, and its plans are often frus- 
trated by captious interference. There must be a head, 
and this head when once chosen must control and direct 
till the end of his term. But where majorities are held 
by one or two men there is never any or at least little 
opportunity for an alteration of the policy or manage- 
ment of the organization in the interests of or in con- 
formity with the views of the remaining stockholders, 
whereas if majorities were held by many men the control 
never would become autocratic, but when the officials 
are once chosen and the policy fixed its administration 
can be quite as efficient as when wholly in the hands of 
the one-man owner. Why could not a certain individual 
of unquestioned fitness and capacity manage the affairs 
of a railway, a bank, or other corporation if chosen by 
ten or even a hundred men to constitute the majority as 
well as if elected by only one, and in corporations, 
monopolistic in their nature, the result of the combined 
opinions of many stockholders is usually more in keep- 
ing with the best interests of the corporation, and always 
more representative of the rights of the community 
(which should not be wholly ignored) than are those 
subject to the autocratic domination of the one-man 
power in the selection of managing officials. When the 
officers are once chosen, even though at the behest of 
several rather than of one, they are none the less able to 
handle the business of which they are the recognized 
head with equal decision, individuality, and firmness ; 
and if at the end of a term the management had been 
successful there would be no question as to succession 
for an indefinite period, and if not, then necessarily and 
properly a new management should prevail. Thus, 
therefore, under the present system, when a few very 



PHRONOCRACY 1 37 

rich men can combine, or one can, at his option or 
fanciful caprice, " freeze out " the minority, there is not 
only no inducement for the public to take stock, but an 
absolutely unquestioned and sensible reason why they 
should not. Later, when it may come to pass that no 
great corporation can ever be controlled by a single man, 
or, if involving a vast sum of money, even by a few men, 
the populace will spring to the front with avidity and in 
great numbers and participate in the construction of 
great and needed improvements. Nearly all great en- 
terprises in America, by reason of the rapidly increasing 
population, gain an immense amount from the increments 
of society. Properties costing originally one or ten mil- 
lion dollars soon pay interest on from four to forty 
millions, caused solely by the increase of public patron- 
age and the monopolistic character of the improvement. 
In other words, the conditions are such that a rival 
establishment can not be constructed until the neces- 
sity has grown so great as to make the value of the origi- 
nal many times its cost. This is notably the case with 
the elevated railways in New York City — in fact, with 
railway properties almost throughout the entire American 
Republic. 

The actual cash outlay required to construct the first- 
named improvement was perhaps not more than $10,000,- 
000. In 1890 it was carrying 600,000 passengers daily, 
producing a gross earning capacity of about $30,000 
per day, and paid good interest on four times its cost. 
Thus, therefore, there is an unearned increment of 
$30,000,000, and that, too, in face of the fact that prices 
for transportation have been reduced to the minimum — 
less than originally authorized by law. In a word, there 
appears to be no possible way of reducing the income ; 
a lower price would cause increased travel at little in- 



138 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

creased expense to the company, but to great increased 
inconvenience to the public, so that it is really a ques- 
tion whether or not, in making prices low so as to serve 
a great many, the company is really serving any as they 
should be served, and this very principle prevails in 
many other places. • 

It is a question whether or not many kinds of service 
are not too cheap. Many people would gladly pay 
increased prices for increased privacy and comfort, and 
in the case of the particular enterprise to which allusion 
is made — the Manhattan Elevated of New York — it 
became not a question of price but one of actual ability 
to accommodate the public at any reasonable price. 
The city has grown so enormously, and its geographical 
position and topographical features are such, that there 
cannot exist for some time any successful rival — in fact, 
such is its patronage that the company itself would 
gladly build more lines, but they are thought to be an 
infringement upon the street space and an injury to 
abutting property. And the same conditions prevail in 
many localities and in many enterprises. 

The unearned increment will frequently add vast sums 
to original investors before competition can be engaged 
in, and all this attributable to the increase of population 
and consequent demand, and these conditions may yet 
continue, and in proportion as " freeze out " is reduced, 
popular participation will be increased. If populated in 
proportion to its area and resources as densely as are 
most of the countries of continental Europe, excluding 
Russia, America would contain several hundred million ; 
and if as dense as Asia, or of some of the most thickly 
populated of European states — for example, Belgium, 
which contains over six hundred to the square mile, — 
it would aggregate more than the estimated population 



PHRONOCRACY I 39 

in 1890 of the entire known world. The space within 
its present limits, before the acquisition of British North 
America, Mexico, and Central America, rather before the 
complete establishment of " from the Isthmus to the Arc- 
tic " policy (which must come), contains more arable land 
by twenty per cent, than the whole Empire of China, 
which supports over half a billion people. 

The acquisition of the British possessions on the 
north, and of everything on the south to the Isthmus of 
Panama, would add no great per centum to the existing 
population, but would increase materially the territorial 
area, and consequently the ability to sustain more 
people ; and whilst the population, unaided by any such 
impetus, has increased about three per cent, per annum, 
or one third itself every decade, completely doubling 
itself every generation, with the fresh stimulus of more 
rich land, under a more stable government, and under 
that progressive state of society whereby a few could 
not own the many, and those alone who were worthy 
could participate in government, the population would 
be largely augmented in numbers, and inconceivably so 
in character, until it would appear as though Europe 
would be obliged to adopt the same institutions or lose 
her prestige on the face of the earth. And thus the un- 
earned increments would grow as to railways, highways, 
canals, and waterways, as to land, — in fact, as to every- 
thing that could not be multiplied and increased so as 
to remove the monopolistic features, but these incre- 
ments would be more equitably divided. At present 
and for some time past great objection has been made, 
and the public have been told that great wrong has 
been inflicted upon society, by reason of an increased 
capitalization of certain, in fact, of nearly all, cor- 
porations, a process commonly called " watering the 



140 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

stock." The wrong inflicted by this is more imaginary 
than real. 

If a corporation has a net earning capacity of five 
per cent, on ten million dollars, its shares in the older 
and more thickly settled parts of the country will sell at 
par on the basis of one hundred, and, if its prospects are 
good, at a higher rate. If subsequently, by reason of 
this very increase of population and demand, and at the 
lawful rate for traffic, its net earnings should be doubled, 
as is the case in many instances, then, as a matter of 
course, it would pay ten instead of five per cent, on its 
then capitalization, and if five per cent, previously 
maintained it at par, then ten would just as reasonably 
cause it to be worth two for one. What matters it 
whether the capitalization is ten million and worth two 
for one, or twenty million and worth only par. Un- 
earned increment has doubled its net earning capacity, 
and it is the merest child's play — the rankest ignorance 
— to say that the simple doubling of the shares works 
any injury. People need not buy them, but they do buy 
them, and at times are glad to get them — especially will 
this be so when that condition is instituted wherein no 
one man, or even a few men, can autocratically get half 
and control all. There is no serious objection then against 
" watering the stock," and there should never have been 
any. The wrong is not there, it is deeper down than 
that, but the superficial observer cannot see it, and that 
is the trouble. 

Just so blatherskites prate about unlawful holdings, 
and so forth, all of which is nonsense or ignorance, or 
both. From such shallow-pated reformers as these the 
millionaire fears no result, and they will never accomplish 
any. A certificate of stock is nothing but an evidence 
of ownership, and if any man owns two shares worth 



PHRONOCRACY 141 

together two hundred dollars, he is no richer than if he 
owned only one share worth two hundred dollars. Like- 
wise is there great injustice sought to be practised against 
corporations by obliging the organization as such to pay 
tax on its property and then force the individuals also to 
pay tax on their shares. This is radically unjust. One 
or the other should pay — not both. The cumulative 
rate takes the individual, only leaving the corporation 
alone, because corporations must have no limit — if so, 
civilized progress must stop. The vital objection to all 
previous propositions for political, commercial, and social 
reformation is that enterprise would be stifled. Not so 
under Phronocracy j but great properties would simply be 
more popularly owned. Likewise under other systems 
would effect follow cause in almost exact proportion. 
Give to the populace all the needs of life free and with- 
out labor, and there will soon be nothing to give ; give 
half free and do not increase prices on the other, and 
labor competition will inevitably reduce labor's pay. 
Phronocracy has a tendency in the same general direc- 
tion, but it cannot be proportionate. One hundred men 
may be relieved of taxation to the extent of one dollar 
each ; but one man might be burdened to the extent of 
one hundred dollars. In no way is it possible for the 
latter to secure increased revenue proportio7iate to his in- 
creased tax ; but he can, nevertheless, own and enjoy what 
is reasonable and just. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Probable result of the practical application of the cumulative tax — 
Distributes corporate and other ownership to a maximum limit of 
about four million to one individual — More practical and simple 
than income tax — Requirements of the federal government fully 
met — More equitable distribution assured — Average levy on all 
property only fifty cents per hundred — Evasion impossible — ■ 
Least burdensome and most certain and just of all taxation — 
Greater distribution useless and hurtful — The only true ' ' protective 
system." 

Having outlined some of the principal steps that are 
proposed to be taken looking to the adoption of the 
amendment, and before entering upon an explanation as 
to how the thing can be accomplished, it is well to con- 
sider slightly more in detail the supposed result of the 
system. 

It has been partially explained how it is proposed to 
make the assessments and collections, and the penalties 
to be inflicted for violation of the laws incident thereto. 

There would be, in fact, but few cases of violation on 
record, because on the average estate the government's 
levy would not be large ; it would only seriously affect 
the many times a millionaire, and these are going to be 
comparatively few, but their present estates are colossal. 

For example, the rate being based on each one thou- 
sand dollars, and equalling one cent for each, or the 
one hundred-thousandth part of the estate, would apply 
itself as follows : 

142 



PHRONOCRACY 1 43 



Total Value 


' Estates. 


Rate 


of Taxation Cumulative 


1,000 


dollars. 




.01 


per 


mille. 


10,000 


> < 




.10 




it 


100,000 


i 1 




1. 00 




1 1 


1,000,000 


1 1 




10.00 




1 1 


5,000,000 


< . 




50.00 




1 < 


10,000,000 


> i 




100.00 




< 1 


100,000,000 


1 1 




1,000.00 




< < 



It will be observed, therefore, that allowing nothing 
for local taxation, and estimating five per cent, as the 
rate of income that maintains investments at par, when 
the estate reaches five millions outgo will equal income, 
and that thereafter a continual loss will result to the 
capitalist until, when the one-hundred-million estate is 
subjected to its operations, the whole would be absorbed 
at once. The continual loss on estates above five million 
would, of course, soon consume the excess, so that unless 
distributed to the uncles, the cousins, and the aunts, it 
would be taken possession of by the government. All 
forfeitures to the government — that is, property of which 
it would become possessed (which would not be great 
nor frequent) — could be every six months put up and 
sold, and the proceeds turned into the treasury as a part 
of the government's fund. The property would, of 
course, usually be bought by those who were not too rich 
to own and pay taxes on it. For example, if the govern- 
ment became possessor of a block of one million of the 
stock of a certain railroad company, it would simply offer 
it for sale and put the proceeds into the treasury. 

The individual from whom it came would simply lose 
it by reason of violation of the law. The means for 
ascertaining individual holdings would therefore not be 
seriously complicated, and, as has been said, since the 
cumulative rate would not be severe on the majority, — 
on none, in fact, till they became millionaires or over, 



144 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

— the disposition to secrete would be by no means great 
nor general. In the case of stocks and bonds, however, 
there would be some question (especially in the case of 
securities not listed on the stock exchanges) as to their 
proper assessible value. 

There was a proposition to assess all at one hundred 
cents on the dollar, which, it was urged, would prevent 
the old objectionable practice of "watering stocks," 
and cause all companies to issue only that amount of 
securities that could be maintained at par. This looked 
simple and just to that uninitiated and superficial ob- 
server who had heretofore imagined that there was a 
great wrong inflicted by increasing the corporate capi- 
talizations. This would prevent that, it is said, and 
would be simple and reasonable, working no injury to 
the individual holder, for the corporation would always 
reduce its capitalization to the maximum, which would 
be worth par. It is a satisfactory argument against this 
to say : what would prevent the corporation from so re- 
ducing its capitalization as that, though assessed at par, 
it would really be worth three or four for one ? It would 
therefore be found better to assess all at as near its cur- 
rent selling value as could be ascertained. 

In the case of the largest corporation (which would 
be the most important and contain the greatest number 
of shareholders) the monthly average would afford a very 
good criterion, and in most cases there would be very 
little difficulty. The collectors and individuals could 
usually arrive at a very fair conclusion, both for the gov- 
ernment and the individual. In case, however, all efforts 
at determining the value should fail — that is, in case they 
could not agree, the government should have a right to 
demand of the company, say, one per cent, of its securi- 
ties, and the company would of course obtain these by 



PHRONOCRACY' 145 

calling them in from the individual holder. These secu- 
rities the collectors could offer for sale on the open mar- 
kets after proper advertising, paying, as a matter of 
course, the proceeds thereof back to the corporation ; 
but the price they brought should be the rate at which 
all individuals in that corporation should be assessed 
during that annual payment. The government would 
take no note of incomes. If the holder of property re- 
ceived none, that would be his own misfortune and not 
the government's charge, and if he received forty per 
cent, on a property that could only properly be assessed 
at par, that would be the individual's and not the gov- 
ernment's gain. All it would want would be its revenue 
on the cumulative basis. If property did not pay, such 
as vacant city lots and the like, that would not be the 
government's business, and the individual could sell them 
and invest in something else. Taxation on incomes has 
been tried (not cumulatively, however), and it does not 
work. 

It is difficult to ascertain at all times and from all prop- 
erty just what the income is ; but it is not difficult to 
ascertain that a man has property, and whether it brings 
in an income or not alters not its liability to the cumu- 
lative tax. If it continuously paid no revenue, in the 
natural course of things the value would decline, unless 
it was caused to advance by increasing demand, as city 
lots or suburban farms or any other class of property. 
The cumulative feature would be the essence of the whole 
thing any way, and it would be imposed on property di- 
rect, because property should pay its tax. With greater 
complication and less certainty of result it might be 
placed upon incomes ; but it matters not how the cumula- 
tive rate is applied, it would work the same result under 
all possible conditions ; why, therefore, should the gov- 
10 



I46 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

eminent bother about incomes, which are an incident to 
property and dependent much upon its management and 
control, when it could effect the same, in fact a better, 
result from the property direct on the assumption (which 
is just) that if it does not yield income, it should. The 
point now is also raised that, since corporations would 
not be called upon to account to the government nor be 
in any way subjected to the cumulative tax, all busi- 
ness would drift into corporations, and there would be 
no tax collected. 

Corporations could only be organized by five or more, 
and in some States by not less than eleven men or more, 
and of course be they five, eleven, or eleven hundred, 
they would be obliged to account to the collector as 
individuals. 

There would be no difficulty in regulating the system ; 
it is not of course as simple as simply taxing the land 
only, but its votaries will likely be men who are not seek- 
ing simple things. On the ground of simplicity and 
perhaps of convenience a simple gown might be worn 
made of sufficiently thick material to protect us from 
the wind, but society likes a little more complication. 
The advocates of a more equitable distribution of the 
property of the earth and of stability in government, by 
the exclusion from participation in it of the rabble of the 
earth, are not seeking simply a simple method of collect- 
ing taxes, though all things considered the plan would 
prove in fact to be the very simplest ever devised. 

All that there would be in it different from what every 
county assessor in the land is doing every day would be 
simply to get the whole of a man's estate together and 
have the tax paid to one collector so that the cumulative 
rate could take effect. 

The requirements of the general government, relieved 



PHRONOCRACY 147 

from extravagance, are now about $300,000,000 an- 
nually ; but notwithstanding the increase in popula- 
tion, the decrease in the public indebtedness, and the 
curtailment of the useless, unwarranted, and unreasona- 
ble pension lists, and, above all, by reason of the curtail- 
ment of the ballot and the betterment of the management 
of public affairs consequent thereon, the annual expendi- 
ture can be very much curtailed. Almost wasteful ex- 
travagance and prodigal expenditure can be nevertheless 
indulged in as to the improvement of inland waterways 
(which the general government controls), the erection of 
coast defences and similar public improvement, also the 
construction of a navy, which may soon be more necess- 
ary than heretofore, by reason of the eventual acquisition 
of almost all the Greater Antilles and many islands in the 
Pacific Ocean ; yet even with all this, $300,000,000 
per year should be ample, and may exceed the average. 

It is clear that $300,000,000 could be obtained on the 
basis of $6 1,000,000,000 of property (which is less than the 
census return of 1890) by the imposition of the exceed- 
ingly small levy of but five dollars on the thousand, or 
fifty cents on the hundred of property valuation. 

It may be, however, that the cumulative rate of itself 
would not equal that figure. It would require an estate 
of just half a million dollars to create a rate of five 
dollars per thousand, and it is evident that the average 
estates of the people generally would not reach that 
figure, notwithstanding the vast excess of a compara- 
tively few. The vast majority of the public who would 
be owners at all would hold property in amounts less 
than $100,000, so that whilst the rich would be obliged 
to pay from twenty to forty dollars per thousand, so 
many people would pay less than one dollar per thou- 
sand, that the average might not be five dollars, thereby 



148 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

rendering it necessary for the government to impose in 
addition to the cumulative rate a special uniform levy. 

The cumulative rate would be figured first by simply 
dividing the property by 100,000, or by counting one 
cent for every thousand of the aggregate, then to this 
would be added any special rate that might be fixed. 
Of course the direct levy might never be needed, and it 
would be variable as the wants of the government would 
require, but the cumulative rate would be identically and 
essentially the same, and would have always to be 
counted first. For example, if an estate aggregated 
$100,000, that individual's cumulative rate would be 
only one dollar per thousand, whereas if an estate aggre- 
gated $1,000,000, his cumulative rate would be ten 
dollars per thousand as against the other man's one 
dollar per thousand. 

When any estate reached five million dollars, then the 
rate cumulative would be fifty dollars per thousand, or just 
five per cent, interest, which would make this an unprof- 
itable estate, at least less so than if it had been three or 
four instead of five million dollars. There would be 
no evading the cumulative rate except to secrete the 
property, and this would be desired only by the rich, and 
they would fear the severe but just and proper penalty. 
It would work like unto a governor on an engine ; it 
would start her when she was slow by opening the throt- 
tle, and stop her when she was fast by closing it. There 
is no property whatever that should be made exempt 
from the cumulative tax, not even government bonds, 
but the government might, if it chose, relieve its bonds 
from any special levy that it found necessary to impose 
on other property; but it should be made an express con- 
dition that all property should be subject to this cumu- 
lative tax, without any power anywhere to remove it 



l'HRONOCRACY 1 49 

other than by a total abolition of the fundamental law 
that created it. This would, of course, be necessary, for 
otherwise some large capitalists would evade the cumu- 
lative rate by buying up that class of property that was 
exempt ; hence none should be exempt. Municipalities 
might exempt their bonds from city tax, but there 
should exist nowhere any power, except by the abroga- 
tion of the amendment itself, to relieve any property from 
the cumulative tax. 

The very origin and essence of the system of regula- 
ting the extremes of society pre-supposes its application 
to everything, otherwise its utility would be nil. Of the 
many who have written on the subject of political econ- 
omy, all have given ideas more or less valuable, as to the 
best manner of securing wealth, both individual and 
national, but none as yet have invented a feasible system 
for equitable distribution. 

To give to one man, or to permit such conditions to 
exist in society as will enable one man, which is the 
same thing in effect, to amass a fortune ridiculous and 
monstrous in its magnitude, is not an equitable distribu- 
tion even to that man as an individual. It is not the re- 
sult of his own genius, it is not required as a reward for 
his genius if it is the result thereof, and hence is useless 
and unnecessary ; and, to permit it to exist whilst our 
eyes are confronted with an astonishing mass of human 
wretchedness and woe, it is not surprising that some 
have thought, as did Hobbes, that " hostility is the 
natural bent of man, both to things around him and to 
his own kind." 

And that others, as did Rousseau, " that the savage 
life is far preferable to the most enlightened civiliza- 
tion"; that it would be better that all should breathe 
the foul air in the gloom of a cave, than that a few 



I50 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

should luxuriate in splendor in the palaces of kings and 
others in their very shadow die of wretchedness, squalor, 
and starvation. Cicero, in substance, compared the 
world to a theatre which is common to the public, and 
yet the place that any man has taken is for the time his 
own. Assuming, however, that what a man has is his 
own, it is proper that he should control and enjoy that 
(his own) to within a reasonable limit ; but since every- 
body admits that all men must, as in a civilized state all 
men do, sacrifice a modicum of their individual liberty 
for the well-being of society, why should they not like- 
wise sacrifice their unnecessary accumulations for the 
same beneficent purpose ; and since one man is not 
better able to sacrifice liberty than another, but is able 
to sacrifice property better than another, why should he 
not thus sacrifice ? 

The man or party that seeks to completely eradicate 
poverty will find his task abortive and impracticable, if, 
in fact, it is not wrong. " The poor ye have always with 
you," means more than it says. The poor ye must have 
always with you is, or to the extent that any man has 
ever been able to prove to the contrary, as natural a con- 
dition as to breathe air or to drink water. Its rigors, its 
wretchedness, and its horrors can be and should be miti- 
gated, but there is no possible scheme consistent with 
man's right to the fruit of his labor, by which it can be 
absolutely removed. " Things without remedy should be 
without regard." " Why, therefore, should we fools of 
nature thus shake our disposition with thoughts be- 
yond the reaches of our souls ? " Yet it is perhaps as 
well that all vanities should have their votaries, all fads 
and phantomnations their followers. Discussion does 
no harm, for it only kills the phantomnation quicker 
than 't would die of inanition. 



PHRONOCRACY 151 

' ' The world is still deceived with ornament ; 
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, 
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, 
Obscures the show of evil ? In religion, 
What damned error, but some sober brow 
Will bless it, and approve it with a text, 
Hiding its grossness with fair ornament ? 
There is no vice so simple, but assumes 
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. 
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false 
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins 
The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars ; 
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk ? 
And these assume but valours excrement 
To render them redoubted. Look on beauty 
And you shall see 't is purchased by the weight ; 
Which therein works a miracle in nature, 
Making them lightest that wear most of it. 
Thus ornament is but a guilded shore 
To a most dangerous sea ; the beauteous scarf 
Veiling an Indian beauty : in a word, 
The seeming truth which cunning times put on 
To entrap the wisest." 



Between the point of greatest poverty and that of 
greatest wealth there is a wide gulf, a great chasm, but 
it can and maybe partially removed. No individual 
should soar too high, and none, if he but exert himself to 
an extent slightly beyond that required to breathe, can 
sink too low, unless by a combination of extraordinarily 
adverse conditions he is forced there, and if so, and his 
case is worthy, he is now provided for in an asylum or a 
house for the helpless and infirm. 

But to further inquire into the practical results of the 
application of the cumulative tax. Foreign investment 
in America has been very great, and in many cases very 
remunerative. It will be urged as an objection to the 



152 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

system that British gold would be withdrawn, and prop- 
erties would be thrown upon the market, and widespread 
confusion and dismay would prevail in all branches of 
business. 

The Briton, as an individual, would stand the same 
before the law as an American as an individual. The 
foreign holders of property of all kinds would simply 
be reported to the collector in New York, who would be 
the only one of the whole list appointed by the Presi- 
dent, and the rate for their holdings would be made up 
in the same manner. Not only would it not in any sense 
deter foreign investment, but it would actually encourage 
the same for the reason that the administration of affairs 
would be more perfect, greater security and protection 
would be assured, and the whole thing be made more 
satisfactory. America can get along without such for- 
eign investors as this system would hinder, but it would 
hinder none. 

Even England herself would doubtless begin to devise 
ways and means looking to the adoption of the same 
system, but such are the characteristics of her people, 
such the reverence for their ancient and honorable insti- 
tutions, that even though most of her prominent men 
should acknowledge its justice and its benefits to the 
state, yet it would take possibly centuries to introduce it 
though it should have worked well in America. There 
would be no difficulty experienced in making the assess- 
ments, and a list of those who paid taxes would be 
recorded on the books of the collector, together with 
their address, which list would be accessible to every- 
body: — to the commercial agency man in completing his 
books, to the merchant and tradesman in general in the 
extension of credits ; to all it would be of incalculable 
value, and all free to the public. It would be about the 



PHRONOCRACY 1 53 

best possible criterion as to a man's actual wealth, for the 
reason that errors would always be on the safe side. 
When the rate increases as the property increases, there 
is a double force applied against the tax-paying citizen, 
who under no circulations could afford to unduly mis- 
represent his holdings. Furthej'more, everything that he 
owned would be found listed in the place where he lived — 
a valuable aid to business men. 

In making up a list the collector, through his subor- 
dinates, would canvass the district, and using the same 
means as are now employed in regular assessments, first 
put down all country real estate, then city property, then 
securities which, if in corporations existing in his dis- 
tricts, would be reported by the companies, or if remote, 
then by the collector of the district in which they were 
located, together with any other kind or class of prop- 
erty in said district. The individual would present his 
list, and when compared with that aggregated by the 
collector through his various avenues of information, if 
all things tallied, the collector would simply divide the 
whole by one hundred thousand, and say to the indi- 
vidual : " Your cumulative rate for this half year is thus 
and so, plus any special levy of, blank, dollars per thou- 
sand, making a total of, blank, dollars per thousand, 
which you will pay over to the cashier." 

This would be simplicity simplified, and more and 
better justice would be done and excesses absolutely 
destroyed. The greatest confusion would exist in the 
first application of the system in the city of New York, 
where the question of excess would be most frequent. 
Here, however, there would be a number of collectors, 
as many as the city had representatives in Congress ; and 
since many corporations, though organized under the 
laws of other States, for convenience and profit main- 



154 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

tained offices in New York, they would be obliged to 
make returns in that city, and ere long things would 
work smoothly. 

The corporation should designate some place as its 
principal office, and whether its principal mercantile 
business was transacted there or not, there would be the 
place where it would make its report to its resident col- 
lector, who, in turn, would be obliged to make a report 
to the collector in other districts, stating the names, 
residence, and amount of any stock- or bondholder of 
this company, whose office was in his district. 

It is no argument against the system to say that, not- 
withstanding its completeness, some property would be 
secreted, more than it would be an argument against the 
internal revenue system on spirituous and malt liquors 
to say that at times some illicit distillations are dis- 
covered ; but, on the contrary, the increasing feature 
of the cumulative rate would compensate the govern- 
ment for any evasion that might occur, and the individual, 
though perhaps in a few cases successful in evading, 
would nevertheless be subjected to the increasing 
rate, which has never hitherto been made available as 
an offset against withholding property from assess- 
ment. 

To all those who say in effect, " Oh, they will evade the 
rate " ; " It can be evaded," etc., etc., it may be answered 
that if but poorly enforced it would be better than if not 
done at all, and even then would be the most just and 
equitable and least burthensome tax on earth ; but it 
would be a strange admission upon the part of an Amer- 
ican citizen, and a sad commentary on our institutions, 
to say that the whole force and power of his government 
on the side of law, and for its rigorous and impartial en- 
forcement in strict conformity with both its spirit and 



PHRONOCRACY 1 55 

letter, would not be equal to the force and power of a 
few rich individuals in their personal efforts to defy it. 
Such forbodings give no concern, as of right they should 
not, for if so then all law is useless, a condition Ameri- 
cans are not prepared to admit. As stated, it cannot be 
definitely ascertained just the exact number of estates, 
nor the amounts held by each individual, nor can an ap- 
proximation be made that any one could guarantee to be 
in any degree accurate, so that the people who are asked 
to support the amendment can only be assured that the 
cumulative rate would not likely average more than five 
dollars on each thousand (possibly not that), and that 
the government might be required to make a special levy 
to make good a deficiency. It is almost certain, however, 
that fully half of the property of the United States is now 
owned by people possessing estates that will average two 
million dollars, ranging, say, from one million to two 
hundred millions, and since under the cumulative system, 
after providing for local taxation, an estate of over three 
or four million would yield no revenue on a five per cent, 
basis, and that three million would yield about the same 
as four, it is a fair presumption that this maximum would 
be the limit of any individual's wealth. Therefore, if, as 
this estimate indicates, one half the whole property of 
the country is now owned by fifteen thousand (15,000) 
individuals, averaging two million each, and if, as a re- 
sult of the cumulative system, no individual could own 
more than four million dollars and retain for himself 
much net revenue, and if, furthermore, as appears most 
probable, the hundred millionaires would distribute their 
property to their friends in lots of certainly not more 
than three millions each, rather than have their excess 
forfeited to the State, then the said half of all the prop- 
erty in the country would be divided into lots certainly; 



156 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

not exceeding one million on the average, instead of two- 
million average as before. The whole assessment in 1890 
being nearly sixty-five billion, the half would, in round 
numbers, be at least thirty billion, which amount in one- 
million-dollar estates would make the number owning 
half, only thirty thousand. It is not unreasonable to say 
that half the property of the country might still be owned 
by persons holding estates averaging one million, on 
which basis thirty thousand people would own half the 
property of the country, instead of fifteen thousand as 
now, and they could better afford to pay their allotment 
of tax than the vast popular throng, as numerous as they 
would be, could afford to pay theirs. A million-dollar 
estate would yield at five per cent, the net annual income 
of fifty thousand dollars, equal to the salary of the Presi- 
dent of the United States ; it would pay in taxation a 
cumulative rate of ten dollars per thousand, to which 
add about one per cent, or ten dollars per thousand more 
for local levy (to which minimum it can be reduced by 
good administration and the avoidance of secretiveness), 
and the total would be, say, two per cent., or twenty 
thousand dollars per year, which would leave the owner 
a net revenue of thirty thousand per year, enough for 
any ordinary man. 

To him who had an estate of three million dollars, the 
net result would be but very little greater. The three- 
million man would have an income, at five per cent., of 
one hundred and fifty thousand per year, and his rate 
would, all told, be about four per cent, (three cumulative 
and one local), making an outgo of about one hundred 
and twenty thousand, leaving the net result the same, or 
very little different. If the estate should yield six per 
cent., the net income would be sixty thousand dollars 
per year. But to illustrate the respective burden on the 



PHRONOCRACY 1 57 

people of the cumulative system, as compared with the 
present methods, we assume : 

A man whose estate is such as to leave him after pay- 
ing all taxes from ten to seventy-five thousand dollars 
per year, has enough. If his gross income is fifty thou- 
sand, he could better afford to pay twenty-five thousand 
in taxes than the man whose gross income is but one 
thousand could afford to pay one hundred in taxes, or, 
in other words, the one could pay fifty per cent, better 
and easier than the other could pay ten per cent., just 
because he is that much better able to pay than the last- 
named man. 

Therefore, if out of the entire property of the country 
half would still be owned by thirty thousand men, or 
about one four-hundredths part of the present voting 
population, nearly all the burden would be placed on 
these few individuals who could easily pay it, and yet 
have much and to spare, and scarcely any would be 
placed on the mass of the population, because the rate 
of the thirty thousand, or one-million-dollar estates, 
would be ten dollars for the general government, and 
that of the remaining taxpayers, whose estates would 
scarcely average ten thousand dollars, would be but ten 
cents per thousand. The number of individuals who 
would pay the other half cannot be exactly ascertained, 
but under the equitable method of distribution which the 
system would guarantee it is certainly a safe estimate to 
say that there would be one hundred times as many men 
owning estates of one thousand and upward, averaging, 
say, ten thousand dollars, as there would be owning 
estates averaging one million dollars. This would make 
a total tax-paying population of thirty thousand individ- 
uals on the side of one-million-dollar average who would 
pay nearly all the tax (because of their higher rate), and 



158 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

three million on the side of the ten-thousand average 
who would pay very little on account of their lower rate, 
or a total of three million and thirty thousand tax-paying 
individuals, which would leave about two thirds the en- 
tire adult male population of the country without prop- 
erty, and, consequently, not contributors nor voters at 
all. Thus we have one four-hundredth part paying 
nearly all, and about one third part paying scarcely any 
tax, placing no burden whatever upon the non-taxpayer, 
or on the man who works for hire at a certain per diem, 
whilst under the protective tariff system these conditions 
are just about reversed. 

The popular throng who labor by the day must have 
clothing, blankets, knives, forks, spoons, and house- 
hold furniture, every one of which are necessaries of 
life, and pay tax from forty to one hundred per cent, 
ad valorem, so that estimating only the consumption of 
the necessaries of life, that two thirds of the population 
which under the cumulative plan are entirely exempt 
pay under the the protective plan nearly all of the total 
tax ; or, in other words, under the cumulative plan they 
pay nothing, and under the protective plan they pay 
'annually about three hundred million dollars, and yet 
that monstrosity is called "protection to labor." A 
grander misnomer than its title was never invented in 
human nomenclature, and a more pernicious and dam- 
nable heresy was never practised by a nation. The 
leaders of the Democratic party in America really be- 
lieve this very assertion to be true, but they are afraid to 
say so, afraid to say anything for many years, except 
that protection is a good thing, but the country needed 
less of that good thing — a position both timorous and 
ridiculous and utterly indefensible. 

They are afraid even to say in their platforms that 



PHRONOCRACV 1 59 

the Constitution of the United States does not authorize, 
nor ever intended, that any tax of any kind should ever 
be levied by Congress save solely and exclusively for 
revenue. To admit that that instrument authorizes taxes 
for other purposes would be to say that the government 
might collect money from the people for the purpose of 
distributing it again among the States for the educa- 
tion of some of the voting apes of Mississippi and South 
Carolina, a proposition to which effect actually was 
introduced in Congress, and it is said that the proposer 
actually was not tried at once for lunacy — a remnant of 
history still more surprising. 

If, therefore, to the non-property-holding class, of fully 
two thirds the voting population, there is a saving of 
three hundred millions or thereabouts per annum, which 
amounts to almost forty dollars per head, and that 
nearly all that entire amount can, by the cumulative 
tax, be collected from about thirty thousand million- 
aires and the small remainder from three million men 
who would contribute only from one to about one 
hundred dollars per year, each in proportion to his 
ability, there remains no question as to the lightness of 
the burden as compared with the so-called " protective/' 
or other revenue systems. 

30,000 estates averaging $ 1,000,000 equals $30,000,000,000 

rate $10.00 per thousand, equals 300,000,000 

3,000,000 estates averaging $10,000 equals 30,000,000,000 

rate 10 cents per thousand, equals . 3,000,000 

Total amount collected $303,000,000 

It certainly cannot be denied that the proper source 
from which to obtain all revenue is that which is least 
burdensome to the people and most certain to the 
government, and that the cumulative plan is the least 



l6o POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

burdensome has certainly been shown, if in fact the 
proposition needs any argument or elucidation. Even 
the rankest protectionists are obliged to admit that any 
scheme that obtains revenue for the government from 
the excessive accumulations of property is the best 
scheme, but they claim that its operation would be more 
unjust to the few who are rich than the protective policy 
has been to the many who are poor. This is about as 
forcible as the arguments of protectionists in general 
usually are, and it is simply answered by the statement, 
"Well, let it be so "; the masses in whose interest we are 
trying to legislate will, we hope, not severely complain 
at this so-called discrimination against the rich, who 
have been discriminated "for" since the date of man's 
first reign on earth, and turn about is fair play. It will 
at first startle the one- and two-hundred millionaires 
when they are brought into the full realization of the 
fact that they can no longer safely hold more than four 
or five millions of property. " My ! " some will say, " it 
costs us from one to two hundred thousand dollars per 
year to live." " Well," it is answered, " if you continue at 
that rate it won't be many years before four or five mil- 
lions will appear to you as large a sum as it now appears 
small. Still you can consume a million a year in living 
expenses if you desire. So much the better for the 
butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker." If 
there never had been a man worth over three or four 
million dollars and never had existed such monstrous 
individual estates, nevertheless the cumulative plan 
would still be justifiable and the best possible system of 
taxation, even though it accomplished nothing more 
than collecting revenue for the support of government 
from the man who is best able to pay it, rather than from 
him who is least able to pay, as is the practical effect of 



PHRONOCRACV l6l 

all other systems ; but accomplishing both and in a 
manner (through the corporation) that still gives to 
civilization full opportunity to progress, there is no 
question as to its justness. The reasoning class has 
reached the conclusion that there can be no equal dis- 
tribution of property ; that such, figure it as you may, 
is not the natural condition of things and cannot be 
caused to exist by legislation, but present conditions can be 
improved. 

The property of America, in 1890, being about $ 1.000 
per head, if distributed would have given each man, 
woman, and child that amount of money, which would 
doubtless have resulted in one grand drunken revel for 
about ten days upon the part of about two thirds the 
population, at the end of which time the other third 
would have possessed it all, and ere long individuals of 
that third by energy, tact, shrewdness, and good luck — 
the latter no inconsiderable factor in the game — would 
have grown richer and richer and the other poorer and 
poorer till practically the same condition would exist as 
that which the division sought to remedy. Not only by 
reason of the full appreciation of the truth of the state- 
ment, that in practice an equal division could not be, is 
the idea abandoned, but also from a more or at least 
equally cogent one, to wit : that if it could it should not 
be, because there must exist gradations in society. Men 
are not all alike : some will work harder and save more, 
and these are entitled to what they possess to a reason- 
able degree ; others will do less work and save less, and 
those must bide the results to a reasonable degree. That 
reasonable degree with the former is a just compensation, 
which three or four million is considered to be ; with the 
latter, the pangs of poverty, till, by reason of his utter 
dependence, the state sends him to the poorhouse, and 



l62 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

how can it be avoided whilst the earth turns as it now turns, 
or rather while we are what we are ? 

Even if men were absolutely equal, there are ten 
thousand occurrences in life that will put some behind 
in the race with their fellows ; for example, he might break 
a leg or lose both eyes, and leaving the nine thousand 
nine hundred and ninety-eight to be imagined, we pro- 
ceed to say what has never yet been thoroughly appreci- 
ated. 

By reason of these inequalities (whether they be natural 
or forced by circumstances, they exist) laws should be made 
which bear unequally — though not unjustly, — and such a 
law is " cumulative taxation," or rather " the conserva- 
tive amendment," and the method of its adoption is 
clear, plain, and simple, and is in strict accordance 
with the terms set forth in the American Federal Con- 
stitution. 

Applying itself as it would most severely on the accu- 
mulations of capital, and least severely, in fact almost 
inappreciably, to the possessors of average estates, and 
wholly exempting those having no estates at all, it 
would certainly be the least burdensome of any system 
yet devised. Those favoring a taxation for protection 
could in this plan find such as would be genuine and 
real, but protecting the masses and not the classes, the 
poor and not the rich. 

It maybe urged as an objection that corporations could 
diminish their dividends, hence depreciate their stock, by 
paying unreasonably high salaries to parties in interest. 
To this it may be replied that they could not afford to 
pay to many over $5,000 per year, which would be a 
fair distribution; but those who, in any avocation, receive 
over $5,000 can be subjected to taxation the same as 
if they acquired their income from property ; that is, a 



PHRONOCRACY 163 

man getting $50,000 per year could be obliged to 
pay $10,000, which would be the cumulative levy on 
one million, on which $50,000 is the income. Those 
receiving salaries high enough to be worthy of notice 
could easily be ascertained by the assessor, hence this 
objection is not vital. If 60,000 instead of 30,000 people 
should own half the property of the country, their estates 
would average half a million dollars each, and their 
cumulative rate would be $5 per thousand, which would 
produce a revenue of $150,000,000 or half the amount 
required for the support of the government, the 
other half coming from perhaps 4,000,000 people in 
small amounts, leaving all others free. Why should 
such a system be opposed on account of " inquisitorial 
scrutiny." Let estates be scrutinized and taxed, other- 
wise let them be not lawfully possessed. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

How it may be accomplished — Hundred millionaires fatal to small 
investors — But great corporations, if owned by many, cause no 
harm — Great concentration of wealth necessary to promote enter- 
prise — Power of Congress to impose the cumulative tax — No great 
difference between existing parties affecting fundamental princi- 
ples involved — North Western Granger States and the solid South 
should join hands — Will settle the negro question in the South 
— Cumulative tax will lighten the burden on the South and 
West, and qualified suffrage will increase their proportionate 
vote and power — Will decrease country vote less than city vote — 
Granger States begin to see the folly of protection and value of 
Cumulative Taxation and Qualified Suffrage — Over four million 
farm owners in 1890, three fourths of whom will support the propo- 
sition — This added to conservative city vote is sufficient for suc- 
cess — States that first may support it — Others that may follow. 

As has been said, the principal opposition to the creed 
represented by " Phronocracy" will not be found to exist 
among the hundred millionaires, who, even if so, are 
comparatively few, and the force of their money will aid 
but little the prolongation of existing conditions for the 
reason that measures of a direct and tangible bearing 
would be before the people, and they will be urged and 
supported by citizens above the slums of political prosti- 
tution and vice — such as are approachable only by appeals 
to their inherent manhood and honesty, and whose devo- 
tion to the cause will be so sincere that it cannot be 
shaken by the tempting entreaties of glittering gold. Of 
course there will be very many who will say, " Oh, yes, 
it is a good thing, but it can't be done." Then nothing 
can be done, for nothing else should be done. Society 

164 



PHRONOCRACY l6$ 

needs a regulator and that is all it needs. But it can be 
done. All property is sufficiently known to properly 
distribute dividends, why not to properly apply taxation? 
The question is should it be done ? If conservative citi- 
zens say aye — 't is done. 

Really, the apparent difficulty of bringing it actually to 
be is about the only argument against it that cannot be 
answered without the least possible difficulty. No man 
can urge for an instant that a more general distribution 
of wealth would not be of benefit to society, if for no 
other reason than that it would rob individuals who had 
amassed their fortunes by the increments of society of 
a vast and dangerous power for evil against society. A 
few men possessing all the world's wealth with the means 
at hand to use it, as is always the case in any law-abiding 
community, could be as productive of commercial harm 
as the anarchists, who could with torch and axe make 
wild sport of society's richest thrones. 

No one doubts that if the anarchist had all power he 
could, for a time at least, that is, as long as his power 
lasted, create havoc in any systems of social order ; so 
likewise is it within the power of a man, who has by the 
increments of society grown inordinately rich, to create 
anarchistic havoc in the commercial world. He can not 
only corrupt legislation and judges, but such is the force 
of his momentum and wealth that he can crush out honest 
opposition, and if by force he can crush out opposition 
he could undoubtedly cause to exist in the field of his 
conquests, or among the people of whom he was in this 
respect supreme lord, a condition more oppressive to 
their interests, more in conflict with their inalienable 
rights to the pursuit of happiness, than that which ever 
could exist in a state of healthy competition, or in enter- 
prises naturally competitive. All business is being rapidly 



1 66 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

concentrated into large trusts and syndicates and from 
causes perfectly in consonance with existing conditions. 
Increased wealth, as has been stated, renders possible 
the acquirement of increased facility, and increased 
facility greatly cheapens production, and increased 
cheapness in production results inevitably in one of two 
things (usually one of them); viz., that the price of the 
commodity is cheaper (seldom the case), or that the 
profits to the producers are larger (nearly always the 
case). These combinations are not made for the love of 
the people nor in order that the increased facility and 
cheapness in production that they guarantee will lessen 
the people's price, but always either to advance that 
price or make available the increased profit that will 
result in the maintenance of same, which can be done 
when, by reason of combination, the small competitor has 
been shut out. The greatest political heads of the day 
recognize this evil and seek to avert it by prohibitive 
legislation. Bills are introduced into the United States 
Senate looking to the abrogation of trusts or declaring 
their formation illegal, thus acknowledging a wrong state 
or condition of affairs somewhere ; but these acts fail to 
act. To say virtually that men cannot enter into partner- 
ships (which virtually trusts are, and can casually be 
formed in the face of all law, on this pretext) is in fact 
an interference with personal rights, which, if thoroughly 
tested, it is very questionable if Congress or any other 
legislative body can do. Furthermore, notwithstanding 
the universally recognized evil consequent upon this 
concentration or centralization, there is yet a view that 
can be taken of it, which not only does not present the 
appearance of evil, but of actual benefit and good, to 
wit : where concentration aids excellence and efficiency 
in output, and yet maintains the price or lessens it, as 



PHRONOCRACY \6j 

has been done in a way that cannot otherwise be secured. 
No man can deny that the large wagon factories of 
America (some of which have grown so enormous that 
they can produce several hundred complete vehicles in a 
day) can produce and sell a better wagon for the same 
money than could possibly hitherto have been bought 
from the country cross-road wagon-maker and black- 
smith, — all consequent upon wealth, and the increased 
facility that it insures. This of course effectually ruins the 
cross-road wagon-maker save for little odd jobs of repair. 
Then, again, there are many enterprises that cannot 
be carried out save by great concentrated capital. For 
example, if in America no bridge-building establishment 
had acquired the ability and facility to construct a bridge 
like that spanning the Firth of Forth in Scotland either 
as to magnitude or in a reasonable time, what reason 
would there be in saying that four or five of the largest 
establishments could not at once combine together and 
be thus enabled to accomplish the same both in the magni- 
tude of the trusses and other parts required and within 
a reasonable time ? In this would simply have resulted 
in a short time the establishment of a single bridge- 
building company, into which any one might have grown 
in a long time, and why seek to delay progress in that 
way ? Why say men shall not go into partnership when 
by so doing they may not only increase facility, but 
accomplish works perhaps otherwise impossible, or at 
least otherwise long delayed. The plan to pursue is 
(after everything has been tried) that of permitting 
corporate enterprise to grow and expand to any limit, 
but to see that one individual can not get it all. Well, 
we will look for a time into the manner of its doing ; that 
is, how the scheme could be made law, — how the amend- 
ment authorizing it could be carried. 



l68 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

Whilst it is thought proper to support an amendment 
to the Constitution distinctly authorizing such a tax to 
be levied, and voting qualification to be made, this step 
is taken directly in the face of much good advice as to 
the lack of necessity for anything, other or more than 
a majority in both houses of Congress and the Presi- 
dent's consent ; still, to avoid the possibility of subse- 
quent litigation, and in view of the fact that the effect of 
its adoption would be so universal and widespread, it is 
thought best to begin the foundation of the edifice on 
the rocks beneath, and then its stability would be as- 
sured. 

Many hold that Congress has the right to collect 
revenue for its support and from any source whatever, 
and that a levy per thousand of the one hundred thou- 
sandth part of every man's estate does not lack uni- 
formity ; that it applies to all alike and, if not lacking 
in uniformity, there can be no possible ground for 
urging against it the objection of unconstitutionality. 

Others claim, too, and forcibly, that it is time to look 
into the passage of an amendment granting explicit 
power when the right of levy and collection has been 
questioned and the case taken to the Supreme Court, 
and that pending any decision of that august body the 
working effects of the system might to a certain degree 
be tested, and if impracticable or baneful it could be 
abolished, and if not unconstitutional no amendment 
would be necessary, and that the entire test both as to 
its practical application and constitutionality could be 
made in half the time required to adopt the amendment, 
if, in fact, the sanction of the requisite number of State 
legislators and delegates of States in Congress ever can 
be secured. 

These views are weighty and of much effect ; how- 



PHRONOCRACY 1 69 

ever, conservatism is the thing, and it is thought best to 
put forward the proposition for an amendment first, for 
in this way the popular pulse can be felt and its temper 
sounded ; it can be explained and discussed, and the 
people can become familiar with its provisions and 
revolve in their minds questions as to its probable effect. 

There exists in the American Union, when all territo- 
ries of the right political complexion — that is, all in which 
the population (whether sparse or great) are supposed to 
favor protection and the duty on wool and some other 
articles — had been admitted, and all, whether their popu- 
lations are great or sparse, of the wrong political com- 
plexion — that is, such as are supposed to favor free wool 
and a little less duty on the other articles, — had been 
refused admittance, just forty -four sovereign States. The 
great Republican organization has stood for wool duty 
and high rates on other articles, and the great Demo- 
cratic organization (whose leaders are for free trade in 
principle and also in practice at the soonest possible 
day, and believe in a direct aim at the game, but are 
afraid to say so) has stood for free wool and a little less 
duty on other articles, and this, in fact, has been about 
the only difference between the parties, and words and 
phrases have been marshalled in every way to convince 
the country that much or a little less protection is just 
the thing, according as the orator is a Republican or a 
Democrat. 

The whole tariff bill, or all the tariff bills that have 
been prepared, and all the speeches pro and con on each 
side might have been tossed up in the air, and a sword 
in the hands of an expert prestidigitator thrust through 
any one of the flying documents, and that one might 
have been passed with about the same average harm (not 
good, for they were all protective) to the country as that 



170 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

proposed by the able chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee of the then dominant party in Congress. 

However, there were, say, in 1890, forty-four sovereign 
States in the American Union, and others to follow when 
their politics, not their populations, are right. To pass 
an amendment to the Federal Constitution, it would 
require the sanction of the legislatures of thirty-three of 
these sovereign States, or, say, of all but of eleven, and 
of two thirds of their delegations in Congress, or thirty 
delegations. 

This appears to be quite a formidable array, and 
rather tends to encourage the adoption of the plan that 
aims at the passage of a bill in Congress in the usual 
way, and leaving the matter, if contested, to the deter- 
mination, as to constitutionality, to the Federal Supreme 
Court, meanwhile giving opportunity for a practical test 
as to the desirableness and efficacy of the measure. 

There is an old adage that " politics makes strange 
bedfellows," and so it may appear in this desired 
reformation. 

Hitherto the so-called Granger States have steadfastly 
supported the protectionist party, more by reason of 
prejudice and of recollection of the bloody days of the 
early sixties than from motives of self-interest or prin- 
ciple, and these, together with the manufacturing States 
of New England and the East, have been the unfaltering 
supporters of the Republican organization. 

The Democratic or the would-be-if-it-dared to-be 
free-trade party has for years possessed no possible 
chance for political ascendancy save from the solid South 
(made so partly by reason of recollections of the war, 
but mainly so by the universal hostility of the whites 
to the domination of the blacks — the former owning 
practically all the property and the latter owning noth- 



PHRONOCRACY I/I 

ing), together with the city of New York, which fre- 
quently controlled the electoral votes of the State of New 
York and one or two States adjoining. It has been a con- 
stant source of vexation to the great Granger States 
of the North and West that the solid South, against 
which they cherished the lingering animosities incident 
to the war, should be able, with the foreign population of 
the city of New York, to occasionally control presiden- 
tial elections. The senile and relentless press of the 
North, ever seeking to perpetuate these lingering ani- 
mosities and to fan into flame the smouldering embers 
of sectional hate, is constantly heralding to the peo- 
ple the false assertion that the South is solid because 
it wishes to secure possession of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and when so possessed it would strike every vestige 
of war legislation from the statute book, re-enslave the 
negro, or compensate the former master to the extent of 
untold millions, also pay Confederate war claims, and 
pension Confederate soldiers ; in a word, bankrupt the 
nation, if such a thing was possible, to reinstate that con- 
dition of affairs which they had suppressed by the loss of 
blood and treasure in the ghastly throes of civil war. 
Not once is it admitted that the South, though of 
course keenly mindful of the loss of property and life, 
has accepted the inevitable and by every word and act 
has signified its inflexible purpose to stand by the nation 
in its entirety, and whilst they have no tears to shed ex- 
cept over the graves of departed comrades, and no 
apologies to offer for having engaged in what they con- 
sidered an honorable and justifiable endeavor to procure 
their rights under the terms of the then existing Consti- 
tution, these States are now a part and parcel of a great 
nation and seek not to mar its glory by internecine strife 
or revolutionary legislation ; but they can not and will 



172 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

not submit to negro domination ; they will not consent to 
be governed by their former slaves. The general govern- 
ment may usurp all constitutional authority and trans- 
cend the rightful limitation of its delegated power by 
passing laws providing for supervisors of elections, 
force bills, backed by bayonets at the polls, — and yet, 
and notwithstanding all these and more, for the protec- 
tion of their lives, their wives, their children, and their 
property, they will never fail to exercise the most strenu- 
ous lawful effort and persistent ceaseless vigil against all 
federal interference of any kind whatsoever in any form 
suggested, before they will ever yield control to the 
negroes, whose enfranchisement in their candid opinion 
was a travesty on free institutions, a blight on the 
national escutcheon, and a grim blot which, like the 
blood-stained hands of guilty Macbeth, all ocean's 
waters can never wash out. In this sentiment many 
northern people concur and hope to see the condition 
altered. Hence the Granger States and the South, which 
by motives of natural interest should have been together, 
have been kept widely apart. 

Each section is to a great extent agricultural, and natu- 
rally each should have been, as the South always was, 
hostile to legislation which protected the manufacturers 
of the East and enabled them to monopolize the markets, 
whilst their own products for sale were placed in direct 
competition with those of the civilized world, a condition 
to which they would not object, provided they were 
likewise permitted to buy in the competitive markets 
of the civilized world, which they are not. In these 
respects, which are the only living issues in politics, the 
South and the Granger States are about equally condi- 
tioned and why should they not act in concord and har- 
mony ? Because and only because of war prejudices. It 



PHRONOCRACY I 73 

requires some stronger incentive than that which has 
hitherto existed to overcome it, and in the proposition 
of the proposed amendment that incentive is found. 
That proposition covers essentially, what ? 

ist. Free trade as soon as it can be " conservatively " 
applied, looking only to the avoidance of revolutionary 
changes. To this the sentiment of the people of most 
of the Southern States have always been friendly, and to 
it all candid and unprejudiced minds admit that the 
Granger States should be friendly. 

2d. It proposes that excessive individual accumulation 
shall be curtailed and that the revenue for the support 
of the government shall, in the main, come from that 
source. 

To this proposition the South is disposed to be friendly, 
recognizing, as it does, first, that the plan is just, practi- 
cal, and secure, and, secondly, — and by greater reason, — 
self-interest consequent upon the fact that most of the 
excessive individual accumulations are in New England 
and the East where protection has worked its natural 
results, and that naturally the burden would fall heaviest 
there. In this there would likewise be great relief for 
the Granger States of the West, and great sympathy 
should exist for the system occasioned by the same 
identical reasons that operate so extensively in the 
South. 

3d. For the greater reason. The proposition involves 
the curtailment of suffrage by establishing conditions, to 
the effect that a man shall both know something and 
own something before he shall vote. This would strike 
the entire South like a fall of bliss from heaven, because it 
would inevitably disfranchise about ninety-nine per cent, 
of the negro vote of their section and leave uninterrupted 
control to the whites or property-holding element of the 



174 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

i 

population. The paupers of the South are blacks, and 
whilst the representation of this section of the Union 
has been increased by some fifty votes in Congress and 
in the electoral college by the enfranchisement of the 
slaves, and notwithstanding the fact that their votes are 
in one way or another suppressed (as a matter of per- 
sonal interest and self-preservation) so that they count 
but little in the control of affairs, nevertheless the 
South is not only willing but anxious to accept some 
proposition that will, deprive the negro of the right of 
suffrage, — to which he was never entitled and of which 
he was never worthy, — especially if that proposition 
looks to the disfranchisement of an equally irrespon- 
sible and unworthy class of foreign paupers and igno- 
ramuses in the North, which would leave the relative 
condition as to representation in the respective sections 
practically unchanged. The North has for years been 
troubled about the negro question. Orators harangue 
the multitudes about suppression and violence in the 
South ; they say : " We freed the slave and amnested him, 
and thought by so doing that our political party would 
reap the benefit of his suffrage, as we should do ; but lo 
and behold, we are disappointed, we are betrayed. We 
have given to the South many additional votes in our 
national legislature and our electoral college, and these 
votes are counted against, not for, our candidates, there- 
by, instead of assuring us in political ascendancy indefi- 
nitely, it has been made possible for the South, aided by 
the foreign population of the city of New York, to 
control the national government, which was not con- 
templated by our leaders at the time of the adoption of 
the Fifteenth Amendment, and had we but vaguely 
imagined that such a result was possible, we would 
never have declared that amendment passed, but would 



PHRONOCRACY 1 75 

have vigorously opposed it. We would never have 
strained our minds and our conscience to declare that 
the requisite number of States had adopted it, when there 
existed quite a question whether or not some that were 
included to make up the complement were actually 
members of the Union at the time they were counted. 
We did all these things as matters of war necessity, and 
to insure party ascendancy, and now our wayward birds 
have come home to roost and we know not how to house 
them ; or, rather, by reason of the ignorance and utter 
bestiality of the negro, he can be led with a halter, terri- 
fied by a threat, or controlled by false glamour and 
counted against his benefactors. What can we do ? 

" The only means out of our dilemma is to send sol- 
diers or supervisors of election to preserve the peace at 
the polls, and this is offensive to our Northern brethren. 
We cannot make a law authorizing said governmental 
interference applicable to one State and not to another — 
if to any it must be to all ; and then there might 
appear to be nothing but profound peace at the polls. 
The white people of the South may tell the. ignorant 
negro that he must stay at home on a certain day, and 
the negro will seldom know until some weeks afterwards, 
if ever, that on the said day there had been an election, 
and thus by similar devices his vote can be suppressed 
and the objects of it frustrated." 

Consequently, many of the Northern States, for the 
purpose of settling the negro question only (it appearing 
to be of impossible practical settlement otherwise), are 
disposed to favor their disfranchisement ; but this could 
not be done except by the establishment of seme uniform 
law or condition that would apply to all, regardless of 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In the 
North it is more than ordinarily desirable to prevent the 



176 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

utilization of increased Southern representation, on ac- 
count of the negro, against the aims, objects, and 
purposes of the party that freed him, but how can it be 
done unless he is disfranchised, and how could he be 
disfranchised unless by some general plan applicable to 
all the States ? And his vote in the North has been useful. 

The Granger population of all the States have also been 
very restive under the increasing power, representation, 
and control of the urban population, which in many 
of the States is increasing by reason of the discriminating 
influences of the protective system in favor of factories 
and against the farms, until it has drawn from the coun- 
try into the cities much of the previous population. It 
is plain to all that the curtailment of suffrage as pro- 
posed would doubtless disfranchise many men in an 
overcrowded city, where it would one man in the rural 
districts, and especially is this true in the Granger States 
of the North and West, where the rural population is 
made up principally of owners of small tracts of land 
sufficient for purposes of eligibility. Even in New York, 
a State where many of the people reside in cities of a 
population of 100,000 and over, the farmers (being pro- 
tectionists by recollection of war traditions and prejudice) 
could almost always secure a majority in their State 
Legislature, and of their delegation in Congress, and 
their United States Senators, but seldom the governors 
of their State, because in State elections the slums of the 
city counted as effectually as the counties in the country, 
and in many cases more numerously. 

It is plain that if in the entire State of New York there 
are one million votes, and that if half were urban and 
half rural, any law that disfranchised even five urban 
where it effected one rural, the ruralists would certainly 
control in everything. For example, if out of 500,000 city 



PHRONOCRACY 1 77 

votes four fifths were disfranchised (and there are almost 
this ratio of irresponsibles to honest men), there would 
remain but 100,000 urban votes ; and if in the rural 
districts there were disfranchised even half, or even 
as many as two to five city votes, instead of one to five as 
appears most reasonable, then there would yet remain 
250,000 rural votes, or a large and substantial majority. 
The city of New York need have no fear in this result 
from increased " hay-seed " legislation, for the reason 
that a property-holding " hay-seed " legislator will, when 
legislating with a property-holding city legislator, enact 
laws more in conformity with the interests of both than 
can ever be secured by ignorance, irresponsibility, hood- 
lumism, and venality ; and the same will be equally true 
of all cities in every State. 

Such figures as these even in their local application, 
to say nothing of the disposition among the ruralists 
in the North to settle the negro question forever, may 
cause New York to tremble in the balance on the ques- 
tion. The entire North, being especially vexed and an- 
noyed at the realization of the fact that the increased 
vote in the South consequent upon negro suffrage (which 
fails to " suff ") and the loafer and boodler vote of 
the foreigners in New York City could control presiden- 
tial elections, or even approach the control of same, and 
as both these classes are vicious, uneducated, irrespon- 
sible and corrupt — the easy prey of their more intelligent 
managers and bosses, — will begin to think it a good thing 
on general principles to deprive all of them of their 
voice. 

Especially will this desire be manifested in the Granger 

States. It would enable the Granger population of 

these States (in fact of all States, save a few) to control 

not only the affairs of their own commonwealths as 
12 



178 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

against the irresponsible loafers of the cities, but like- 
wise to insure the electoral and congressional repre- 
sentation safe to their unquestioned majority. 

Not only so, but the Granger will begin to see that the 
policy of protection to factories has not benefited the 
farms ; that the farms have paid most of the taxes and 
received none of the benefits ; or, in a word, they have 
been the contributors, not the recipients, and in conse- 
quence their farms are heavily mortgaged and their corn 
is perishing with rot. Here comes at last a proposition 
that will necessarily tax the rich urban millionaire, who 
has for about a generation continuously, and at long 
intervals before, been receiving all the benefits for which 
they (the Grangers) were taxed, and make him pay more 
than he had hitherto paid, if, in fact, not one full 
moiety of all and half, at least, of the other. It also 
contained a condition that would put into the hands of 
the ruralists increased proportionate political power by 
the decreased proportionate voting privileges that would 
be possible of retention by the cities under the operation 
of the law. Here is both increased representation and de- 
creased taxation — both an inevitable result. Further- 
more, it would settle the negro question of the South — 
a canker in the flesh of all Northern men and a scar left 
from a previous wound in the flesh of all Southerners, 
but with them no longer an eating sore. The latter are 
willing to obliterate their scar and relieve the North of 
the festering sore, if the North will consent to purge the 
nation of its most baleful curse, to wit : ignorant suffrage 
and individual monopoly. The Southern States have 
nothing to lose, because the disfranchisement would 
affect but little the white population of their section, 
and since the foreign pauper of the thickly populated 
centres of the North would likewise be excluded from 



PHRONOCRACY 1 79 

the ballot in about the same numbers as the negroes of 
the South, representation in Congress and in the elec- 
toral college would not relatively be materially changed. 
The South might lose effectually the co-operation of 
New York, which has hitherto been retained by the for- 
eign ignoramus in the lower wards, unless, as in the 
Northwestern Granger States, the New York farmer 
acted on principle, supporting that which caused him 
gain rather than, on prejudice, supporting that which 
caused him loss. This is a problem which an actual 
test alone could determine ; but the Granger States (now 
becoming exempt from prejudice against the South) can 
make common cause therewith (which both should have 
done before), and, had some interest or object arisen 
that appealed to judgment with sufficient force to over- 
come prejudice, would have done so before, and the 
result may be astounding. Even those who reasonably 
doubt the possibility of ever passing an amendment will 
begin to think that the legislation may be secured in 
that way. Here comes the solid South — solid for a pro- 
gressive idea, for something apace with the advancing 
thoughts of men. It cannot be urged that the object of 
the solidity is the payment of Confederate war claims or 
similar monstrosities, any more than it could be said 
that the great empire of Western agricultural States 
that form the advancing procession have become con- 
verted to the idea of re-enslavement and similar heresies. 
Long and tedious, however, will be the advance — all 
waiting for a considerable part of their own number to 
start. Candidates for Congress and for State Legisla- 
tures who may espouse the cause at first, can have no 
hope of greater success than simply the promulgation of 
the creed among the people. Many will, of course, be 
beaten and few elected, but in time the light will begin 



180 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

to dawn. The need for the reform that is proposed 
is becoming greater and greater, the gulf between Dives 
and Lazarus is widening, and the corruption in political 
practices is more infamous and glaring. Schemes and 
acts looking toward ballot reform are passed but to no 
avail, as all partake of the character of that policy which 
seeks to purify from the surface a thing that is rotten at 
the core. But after many vicissitudes and varying suc- 
cess, with no deviation whatever from principle, the thing 
will begin to spread. The sheep will begin to jump, and 
over will go the entire flock. 

It is, then, apparent to all that the difficulties in the 
way of the successful eventuations of the proposition are 
more to be apprehended by reason of the inability of all 
parties to thoroughly understand, than from their refusal 
to extend support and sympathy when all is once made 
clear. In other words, there never should exist much 
doubt that at least a majority of the voters of the country 
would favor the proposition, for, aside from the com- 
parative universality of the sentiments of the Southern 
States and people, and the overthrow of anti-bellum 
prejudices in the rural or Granger States in the great 
Northwest, and the union of these two great producing 
sections for the first time since the war for the enactment 
of legislation directed to their own and not to the New 
England manufacturer's good, the actual figures bearing 
upon the subject indicate, if in fact they do not abso- 
lutely prove, that the scheme can be carried. At least 
none can deny that the showing is much more favorable 
and formidable than would have been at any time sup- 
posed. For instance, there were in 1888 about eleven 
million voters in the entire United States, and in 1890, 
say, in round numbers, twelve million voters. There were 
in 1890 over four million farm owners — not simply ten- 



PHRONOCRACY l8l 

ants and laborers, but farm owners — in America. Each 
one of these, if a male and of age, has one vote, and each 
one would yet retain his vote under the qualification 
system, because he owns property. It therefore stands 
to reason that a large majority of this four million farm 
owners would vote for a scheme (when they had sifted it 
in all its bearings) that would undoubtedly reduce to them 
the burden of taxation and assure to them increased repre- 
sentation. 

Consequently, if three out of four of these farm owners 
voted for their own interests, which (now that the era of 
prejudice has passed) it is but reasonable that they 
should and would do, eventually three million votes, out 
of a total of eleven million, could be counted in its favor 
from this source, and the same proportion of subsequent 
increases. There would remain eight million votes 
composed of the reputable classes of all towns and 
cities, and the disreputable classes of the same. If 
out of the said eight million there could be relied on 
as supporters only one fourth the whole number, which 
is an exceedingly small percentage, this would make two 
million votes which, added to the three million from the 
rural sections of the country and from the South and 
West in general, would make a total of five million voters, 
or nearly one half the entire voting population. 

If from the eight million one third could be secured 
(a proportion not unreasonable), then these added to the 
three would make over five million six hundred thou- 
sand, or more than half the aggregate vote of the country 
in 1888. It is clear, therefore, if the matter was taken 
vigorously in hand, before the evils of Plutocracy have 
concentrated all wealth into the hands of the few, and 
curtailed the number of farm owners in the country, 
which is being rapidly done by the foreclosure of mort- 



1 82 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

gages placed upon rural estates as a natural result of 
prohibiting tariffs — of the system which forced the 
farmer to sell in the lowest and buy in the highest 
markets, — that success would be more than possible 
even on the first probable affiliation of the people and 
before the benefits of the system could be fully ex- 
plained. It would bring together the South and the 
West, and to this cogent force add the better elements of 
all towns and cities, and result in the practical disfran- 
chisement of the negro, who is objectionable as a voter 
to both sections, and also of the loafer, the boodler, and 
the penitentiary bird, whose participation in the affairs 
of government is as ridiculous as it is wrong. The 
Northwestern farmers can, however, never accept the 
name of " Democracy," be that what it may in principle, 
for the name to them is odious, and in truth too much 
" Democracy " is odious to any man. " Phronocracy " 
will suit them better, and after the provisions of the 
amendment shall have been discussed until it has be- 
come thoroughly familiar to all who care to learn, and 
after several Congressmen and State legislators have 
been elected and the Granger States have chosen anti- 
protectionist senators, it can be formally introduced so 
as to bring the question up in every district at the suc- 
ceeding election ; meanwhile candidates for State Legis- 
latures could be supported so as to make it possible to 
seal the measure by the ratification of the States. First 
would come the northern States of the South and that 
part of it that was more thickly populated by the negroes 
would soon follow, and ere long the senators of some 
and a number of the congressional delegates of every 
Southern State would favor the proposition. 

There are Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, 
North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Missis- 



PHRONOCRACY 1 83 

sippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, 
Missouri, rather a good and grand array of probable 
enthusiastic supporters, numbering sixteen, which ere 
long could be relied upon in case the amendment was 
found necessary. Then would come the Grangers of the 
Northwest which would likewise be sending to Congress 
occasional members and electing State legislators favor- 
able to the cause. There are Minnesota, Kansas, Nebras- 
ka, Oregon, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mon- 
tana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and California, 
making twelve (12) additional, or twenty-eight in all, or, 
when a majority of their delegates were secured, six 
more than half the total number, with New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Rhode 
Island, or sixteen, from which to obtain the requisite 
number even for the adoption of the amendment if that 
should be required. The States of Wisconsin and Michi- 
gan would soon tremble in the balance, but owing to 
the relatively greater factory population than exists in 
the other States of the Northwest they would not as soon 
be secured, but ere long several of their congressional 
delegates would be obtained, making in all thirty States, 
or when solid the number required in the lower house, 
but several less than the number of State Legislatures. 
In fact it appears that the full complement of State dele- 
gations in Congress co.uld be secured before even a ma- 
jority of the States could send senators to the upper 
house favorable to the measure ; this, of course, by 
reason of the necessary delay required to alter the poli- 
tical complexion of that body. Hence a bill could not 
receive a majority in the Senate though the House might 
be able to ratify the amendment. 



1 84 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

In States in which the large cities are located and 
throughout entire New England the necessary majority 
probably could not be secured. The opposition in Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and to a great extent in New York and 
Massachusetts, would come from the dishonest politicians 
and boodlers who reside there in sufficient numbers to pre- 
vent the success of the measure. In New York and Mas- 
sachusetts, of course, the one-hundred millionaires, or the 
millionaires from five and upwards, and their functionaries 
and attaches, would make some impression ; but of this 
class there are few in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, yet in 
these last named States there exists quite a number of 
small cities and large towns generally distributed over 
the whole area, so that there could be no distinct Gran- 
ger or rural districts as is the case in some of the States 
of the great Northwest. Little Rhode Island has once 
enjoyed property qualification and was none the worse 
therefor, and would doubtless gladly reinstate that 
part of the proposition, but such is the force of her 
factories and her mills and the violence of their opposi- 
tion to the abolition of protection that she would not 
likely be recorded in the column. Connecticut could 
not likely secure her Legislature nor a majority of her 
Congressmen, though the total vote of the State might 
indicate a considerable element in favor of the proposi- 
tion. Pennsylvania would perhaps never yield, but 
Maine would likely surrender. This would make thirty- 
one States represented in Congress, or, when solid, one 
more than the necessary two thirds, but by actual estima- 
tion of the State Legislatures there would be greater 
difficulty in securing the necessary three fourths, though 
when fairly considered, all in all, no man can doubt but 
that there is more than a possibility of securing the adop- 
tion of the measure ; in fact, a better preliminary show- 



PHRONOCRACY I 85 

ing than has ever existed for any measure of innovation 
and reform, and all that would be required would be to 
thoroughly inform the great class of conservative citizens 
whose interests undoubtedly lie in the direction of its 
adoption. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Suffrage : its functions and uses — Original governmental systems 
absolute, despotic, and void of suffrage — Suffrage the result of 
opposition to divine right to rule — A certain degree of excel- 
lence necessary — Curtailment the only effectual ballot reform 
— Knock out both the one-hundred millionaire and the ward 
"worker" — Female suffrage: never should be granted, and 
reasons why not — Woman's sphere and duty : marriage — 
Opinions regarding same — Proposition that it should be abol- 
ished and women made pensioners on society — Never materially 
altered. 

Suffrage — a voice, a vote, — what is it, what does it 
signify ? What is its origin, and why its exercise ? 

In the beginning, when man's existence was doubtless 
confined principally to the tropics, when his needs and 
wants were simple, owing to the crude and circumscribed 
limit and scope of his intellectual faculties and the 
climatic conditions of the country in which he lived, 
there was but little required of him save to pick berries 
and gather fruit. 

Each day provided for itself, and did so reliably and 
safely. Hence he could sit calmly under the shades of 
the palms, breathe the perfumes of flowers, listen to the 
trickling brooks, and the songs of the birds ; in a word, 
revel in nature's own, the outcome of its existing ener- 
gies. Then truly could he " consider the lilies of the 
field, how they grow " ; he could see that " they toiled 
not neither did they spin " ; and whether more beauti- 
fully than one of these " Solomon in all his glory was 

1 86 



PHRONOCRACV 1 87 

ne'er arrayed," it mattered not to this contented indi- 
vidual. He knew not, or at least he had not the faculty 
to imagine, how it could be otherwise ; that " sufficient 
unto the day was the evil thereof," and that he need 
" take no heed of the morrow," or rather he need not 
fear want or seek to provide against it. Even that 
species of the man animal that lived among the white 
bear and the seal could, almost without effort, or rather 
about as easily as the tropical man could pick the berries 
and the fruit, possess himself of the flesh and fur of the 
said native animals in amounts sufficient to supply his 
simple wants, for he differed but little in intellectual 
scope from them. 

So that from nature's abundant storehouse ample 
could be obtained at all times, and provision against 
want was unnecessary. Why this condition has not 
existed always, or rather why to-day it is or why it ever 
should have been different, we have not the power or the 
province of determining. The fact is that the condition 
is different, and we are likewise powerless to cause that 
to be which is not, and must take it as it is. Many hu- 
man beings live on the surface of the earth between 
parallels of latitude thirty and sixty, and in this region 
of country the natural conditions are such that man has 
many and wonderfully diversified wants. 

He must obtain shelter in winter or he will die. The 
fact is that man is possessed of a faculty that enables 
him to provide against and protect himself from the 
rigors of a land and clime different from that in which 
he originated and to which he was doubtless best adapted, 
and other animals are not ; nor do other animals make 
such provision, nor do they exist in said unnatural 
regions, except through and by the aid of man. 

If man should suddenly be bereft of these faculties he 



1 88 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

would shortly cease to exist, as would an exotic flower 
or a plant perish and decay ; so likewise would the ani- 
mals that are not endemic, when shorn of his care, suc- 
cumb to the elements not their own, and the greater 
these variations, rather the less copious that nature is in 
her supplies, the greater and more diversified is the 
hideous monster called " want," or perhaps the thing 
called " poverty," which is the inability to quiet the 
pangs of wants. 

The hungry babe will cry, and if there be no milk it 
will die. 

Who can say that, looking at nature practically and 
square in the face, it is the duty of each man to exert 
himself to supply milk for every man's babe ? The 
mare that suckles her own colt has about performed her 
duty to the genus equns ; it is to be hoped that she may 
always have grass, but a condition can be imagined under 
which she could not, and for no fault of the others of 
her kind. 

Well, want begets a disposition to supply, and the 
labor thus expended is worth what it has accomplished, 
that is, the property it has acquired, — and the possession 
of this property becomes a right inherent in the indi- 
vidual, because he has paid value for it, L e., he had 
captured it, and some other man has not ; hence it is his 
and not the other man's. 

The accumulation of property begets a desire for its 
retention and protection ; hence communities are formed, 
and in the natural run of things, though perhaps not 
more or less naturally than that the birds of passage or 
the wild geese have their leaders, leaders spring up 
among men, and hence chieftains and kings. The 
ascendancy of the king begets in the masses an idea of 
power and right akin to that which they acknowledged 



PHRONOCRACY 189 

to the ruler of the sea, the thunderbolts, and the winds ; 
hence the idea of divine right, and, as a necessary con- 
comitant thereof, hereditary succession. It was and is 
(be it modified, howsoever), wherever it exists, a relic of 
barbarism, — nothing more, — and, like many other relics 
of the same, is by no means in keeping with that condi- 
tion of civilization in which men can calculate eclipses 
and measure the distance to the stars. 

Fortunately the world moves, and more than a century 
has passed since a nation, then comparatively small but 
now the brightest of all the powers of earth, said, " There 
is no divine right to rule" and that " all just power comes 
from the consent of the governed." 

From this grand principle came suffrage, — the voice, 
— the expression of the governed as to who shall govern, 
and what may be his powers. It is possible, however, 
that the greatest blessings of human life may be in- 
dulged in too freely. It is likewise certain that he who 
is not adapted to a crown (even though he obtained it 
by divine inheritance) should never wear it, any more 
than he whose neck and shoulders are not fitted to the 
yoke (even though it be placed there by superior force) 
should ever bear it. A man to exercise the right to say 
who shall be the governor and what shall be his powers, 
should possess, at least, the ability to know what a gov- 
ernor is and what it is that is being governed ; otherwise 
the participation in the privilege is a mockery, and the 
right to do so had as well be extended to a brute. Why 
not as well, yes rather, extend the suffrage privileges to 
an honest dog than to a vicious man, if neither knew 
what suffrage was ; why not rather extend it to a horse, 
and, with equal reason, to anything ? A man should 
not participate in citizenship unless he is, to a certain 
extent at least, capable of bearing the privileges and in- 



I90 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

curring the penalties of citizenship, any more than a 
man should be engaged as porter in a hotel who could 
not carry a trunk, or as a blacksmith who could not 
wield a forge. He should not be, and is not, permitted 
to enter the army unless he is equal to a certain standard 
of excellence, so that he can withstand and endure the 
requirements of the situation. A blind man should not 
be engaged as a pilot on a ship or a deaf man as a critic 
of music, a lame man as a sprint-runner or a consumptive 
as a pugilist ; in a word, things should be adapted to 
each other — " the punishment should fit the crime," to 
accomplish which is indeed " an object all sublime," but 
it may be " achieved in time." Since governments are in- 
stituted and are maintained for the protection of prop- 
erty, no man should participate in government who has 
no property. Hence the requirements should be that, 
for the exercise of this the greatest and most important 
function of human life, there should be a standard of 
excellence or of fitness prescribed, just as there is for the 
smallest and least important function of human life. It 
is but natural, but proper, and right. Scoff at the idea as 
demagogues and blatherskites may, there is not in pub- 
lic life in America in 1890 a single honorable, reliable, 
and worthy man who does not say deep down in his 
heart that "universal suffrage is a farce." He dare not 
utter this opinion, because if so his political life would 
end, but it may be different later. Many good men 
always have been deterred from uttering their inherent 
political opinions just because an uneducated, vicious, 
and corrupt voting population, who could neither ap- 
preciate nor understand, yet who could cherish prejudice 
and seek revenge, could determine their political life or 
death, and with which class reason was of no avail ; and 
at length and now money and corruption only, and uni- 



PHRONOCRACY I9I 

versally, control. Not alone have public affairs reached 
such a state that good citizens do not participate in 
elections, and the successful candidates are too often 
either of the vicious class, or in sympathy therewith, or 
those who purchased their places with money, but 
scarcely a measure of public import can be legislated 
upon save by the same dastardly and infamous means of 
prostitution and plunder. Not only this, but the igno- 
rant and vicious are being elected to places of public 
trust, ward "workers" to municipal councils, and bood- 
lers to State Legislatures, until in fact actual incompetency 
exists in these assemblages, and the wheels of govern- 
ment are becoming paralyzed. No politician who does 
not covet political death dares do other or more than to 
talk about ballot reform in general, but about nothing in 
particular ; all recognize the great necessity, but no 
leader will speak. Demagogues will reiterate the ex- 
pression, when discussing purification by qualification, 
that was made by an ancient public man to the rabble : 
" Was it the man or the ass that voted ? " 

This appealed well to the vulgar, but was of no use to 
the wise. 

By all means let the ass do the voting, if he knows 
more than the man, and if the ass both owns and knows 
more than the man, by all means let him vote. The 
platform of the " Conservative Phronocrats " is that a 
man should both know something and own something : 
the first, because if he knows nothing he is less compe- 
tent than an ass ; and if he possesses nothing he is usually 
more vicious and dangerous to society, more fruitful of 
harm and bad government, than an ass. This qualifica- 
tion is not only made part and parcel of the creed by 
reason of the inherent justice of the thing, and by 
the increasing necessity consequent upon the rapid in- 



192 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

crease of population, but as a compromise for the sacrifice 
of property under the cumulative tax. Those who are 
extremists either way will not be part and parcel of this 
organization, yet those who lean toward the continuance 
of universal suffrage can yield their preference, and 
those who are inclined to think that cumulative taxation 
is wrong, yet since a competency could yet remain, they 
could yield their preference and agree to adopt the plan 
that strikes out both extremes — each a concession to the 
other. Many people will be brought over to cumulative 
taxation because it carries with it a curtailment and puri- 
fication of the ballot, which they consider more desira- 
ble than one-hundred millionaires ; and others, because 
they think the abolition of one-hundred millionaires more 
desirable than a continuance of loafer, boodler, and 
ignorant suffrage. It looks like a fair thing on the very 
face of the papers. If individual property is to be cur- 
tailed, why should not suffrage, which regulates govern- 
ment over that property, be also curtailed ? Rather, if a 
man is to be compelled to yield a part of his property 
to the State, why should the State not give him in re- 
turn a government in which property alone participates, 
thus guaranteeing greater stability and security for the 
retention and enjoyment of what remains ? Aside from 
the glaring and universally admitted necessity for ballot 
reform, and the almost equal unanimity of opinion that 
the only genuine and true reform is purgation by qualifi- 
cation, there appears to be ample justification for it in 
the compromise. Individuals who possess hundreds of 
millions of dollars can now protect their estates by buy- 
ing up town councils, State Legislatures, aye, and be it 
said to the shame of America, even judges of the courts, 
and when dispossessed of this cogent weapon of defence 
it appears to be not an unreasonable concession that 



PHRONOCRACY 1 93 

property and education only should vote, especially since 
by this policy politics will be purged of its rottenness 
and filth, and good or at least better men — more worthy 
citizens — will become politicians and the standard of 
the clan will be higher. Some objectors urge that by 
curtailment corruption could not be diminished, but 
that the price per vote would simply be increased ; yet 
even such objectors are obliged to admit that, if ac- 
complished, the ratio of purchasable to non-purchasable 
voters would be diminished ; that those who could not 
be purchased before would be none the more liable to 
become vendors in consequence, and many of the class 
who have been vendors would have nothing to vend. If 
out of one thousand men under the universal system, 
five hundred could be purchased and five hundred were 
unpurchasable, it is certainly an unavoidable conclusion 
that under the qualification system the reduction would 
come from the purchasable and not from the unpurchas- 
able class, and if the latter should be reduced to one 
hundred, leaving six hundred electors, it is not a reason- 
able conclusion that three hundred could now be bought, 
even at an enhanced price, as easily as the five hundred 
could before ; if, in fact, three hundred could be bought 
at all. Thus increased excellence causes increased pride 
— rather more individuality. Not only would the stand- 
ing and character of the elector be very much ele- 
vated and purified, but, better and more, the elected as 
well. It has actually come to pass that a man of any 
respectability can not serve in a municipal council, 
scarcely any in the State Legislature, and the Federal 
Congress itself is not exempt from the iniquitous 
scourge of hoodlumism and venality. Something 
must be done or republicism must end — surrendering 

either to plutocracy with despotic power to enforce 
13 



194 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

its decrees, or to anarchy with its thirsty dagger 
drawn. 

The proposition is to knock out both the one-hundred 
millionaire, and the loafer, each equally useless and as 
objectionable as they are dissimilar. In vain it may be 
urged that the one-hundred millionaire is a necessary 
ornament to society and must be retained, likewise vainly 
that the ward loafer is entitled to participation in the 
affairs of State and must also remain ; but not vainly is 
it said that enterprises should be prosecuted by the 
people who are worthy, and we will give them increased 
representation therein, and that the government is like- 
wise the proper function of the worthy, and since it can- 
not be worthily administered otherwise, we will give the 
unworthy decreased representation therein. In other 
words, public enterprises are becoming too exclusive and 
government is not enough so, or too inclusive. 

Thus it is that the policy should prevail of increasing 
the number of individuals who can participate in busi- 
ness ; that is, afford greater opportunity to all men to 
enjoy the fruits and profit of enterprises by nature 
monopolistic and consequently exempt, by the force of 
the situation, from that competition which is essential to 
the life of communities as well as to trade, and of de- 
creasing the number of individuals who can participate 
in government — both reforms very necessary and becom- 
ing more so daily. The same principle and policy that 
should prevail in increasing popular representation in 
private enterprises, out of which the living of all must 
come, should cause the decrease of popular representa- 
tion in government, out of which the living of none 
should come, thus increasing opportunity in business 
and decreasing it in government, causing property to be 
more equitably distributed without elevating the worth- 



PHRONOCRACY I95 

less and the trifling and without thwarting enterprise, 
and at the same time guaranteeing increased security to 
property and elevating the character of government. 

The proposed compromise on the curtailment of un- 
reasonable accumulations on one end, and the purifica- 
tion of the ballot on the other, may lead to an animated 
discussion on the rights of women to suffrage. 

By that class of the female sisterhood called " women's- 
rights advocates," many arguments and appeals have 
been made to representative assemblages for the exten- 
sion of the ballot to their sex, and, notwithstanding the 
fact that the desire for the exercise of the franchise ap- 
pears not to be very great, very general, or widespread, 
nevertheless some States have adopted it as applicable to 
schools and municipal affairs ; but nowhere is the- senti- 
ment growing. 

Presidential conventions are not exempt from resolu- 
tions introduced for the purpose of keeping alive the 
agitation, but no party of any strength has adopted the 
measure as a cardinal creed or political plank in its presi- 
dential platform. It is persistently maintained, and not 
without reason, that since suffrage is exercised by the 
most lowly, degraded, and vicious of men, it would be 
but proper in the interest of the State, to say nothing as 
to the rights of the women, that she, who is admittedly 
more prudent and conservative, usually more painstaking 
and sagacious, — that she whose intuition was better than 
man's judgment, — should be permitted to vote as a bal- 
ance-wheel on society, as a check on man's recklessness ; 
and that since all are ready to admit that in the social 
sphere women exercise a wholesome and beneficent in- 
fluence upon men, cause them to restrain the violence of 
their passions, to elevate their hopes and moderate their 



I96 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

desires, so in the sphere of politics and government 
would the same salutary influence be exercised and tend 
to purge the public of much of its iniquity and sin. 
Women are admitted to be the supporters of religious 
institutions, without the influence of whom they would 
doubtless degenerate and decay, and while man may 
in the progressiveness of his thought, in the boundless 
scope of his imagination and fancy, and in the ability he 
has acquired through scientific inventions, to sweep with 
a four-foot lens and incidental appliances the broad ex- 
panse of limitless space, tend towards the acceptance of 
views heterodox and materialistic, and, in consequence 
thereof, upset the foundation on which the moral edifice 
is constructed, yet women as a class will cling to the rock 
of faith with unflinching energy and never-ending devo- 
tion, thus causing to be perpetuated an institution, be it 
construed in any way whatsoever, is yet an agency of 
greater good than evil, and tends to elevate the moral 
instincts of mankind ; and as with this, so in govern- 
ment, it is claimed, would their intervention be salutary 
and always found upon the side of the moral and the 
good. When it is proposed to curtail suffrage among 
men to within the limit of those who know something 
and possess something, or, in other words, to within the 
ranks of men and not brutes (than which latter, an ab- 
solutely ignorant and degraded man or woman is little 
better), it will be urged with renewed and increased 
gusto that women who know something, and possess 
something, should, under this state of society, by all 
means vote. 

The discussion has resolved itself into a kind of chaos 
of opinions. It does appear as though, if a woman is 
possessed of property, and pays taxes, and likewise is 
possessed of education and brains, she should par- 



PHRONOCRACV I 97 

ticipate in that institution (government) which guaran- 
tees peaceable enjoyment of that property, so that it 
begins to be discussed philosophically. Interrogatories 
are propounded for the purpose of eliciting opinions as 
to who woman is anyhow, what is she, what is her mis- 
sion on earth, and what are her rights in the world ? Is 
she or is she not responsible for the loss of Eden ? Is she 
entitled to every opportunity open to man, and if so should 
she or should she not be subjected to the same exactions 
that are placed upon man ? If entitled to the same op- 
portunity, then it appears reasonable that she should be 
subjected to the same penalty. If she is to participate 
in citizenship, those eligible for suffrage should be eligi- 
ble to any official position that is open to man ; and if 
eligible to enjoy the honors and emoluments of office, 
then she should be called upon to bear the same respon- 
sibility as man in the nation's defence. She must hold 
herself in readiness to climb the ropes and nail the 
banner to the mast, to command a squadron on the deep 
blue sea, to take in hand ten thousand men and march 
up the hills then down again. She must be eligible to 
appointments when young to the military and naval 
academies of all nations, must serve as municipal police 
as well as in State military organizations ; she*-must pre- 
pare herself generally to win her glory on the tented 
field as well as on the hustings, or the forum ; for whilst 
" peace hath its victories not less renowned than war," 
yet citizenship has its penalties as well as its rewards, 
and no woman could reasonably expect to participate 
with men co-equally in the vote without being equally 
ready to respond to the call of the draft. In a word, 
participation in suffrage really and justly means partici- 
pation in government in all that the term implies, and in 
all its incidental belongings. Now, it is asked, are 



I98 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

women physically capable, or, if so, are they in their 
proper sphere when called upon to assume and exercise 
all the functions of government that men must occupy, 
and if in their proper sphere is it for the good of the 
women themselves, to say nothing of the good to the 
State that is unquestionably vouchsafed in the proper 
tutelage to the rising generations (which should not be 
neglected, and which, if women were subjected to duties 
co-equally with men, undoubtedly would be), that they 
should be granted these privileges ? Extend to indi- 
vidual women all the credit you will, and to women as a 
class all the liberality and opportunity you may, and it 
cannot be denied, or even for a single moment questioned, 
that as a class they are inferior both intellectually and 
physically to men as a class. Had such not been the case 
from the very beginning, woman would now be in the 
ascendancy and not man ; they would be considering 
what rights they would extend to the men, and not what 
the men might extend to them. 

It has been urged that they stand to-day secondary to 
man only because men have kept them down. Be it so. 
Men have kept them down because men are stronger, 
otherwise they could not have succeeded. In any 
civilized state, or as civilization has progressed, it has 
been the disposition of men to extend to women, if not 
increased opportunities (which for their own good would 
be questionable), certainly increased courtesies and ex- 
emption from toil. As the woman advances in physical 
and intellectual culture and strength, so commensurately 
are these adorable qualities imparted to her offspring ; 
as she is forced into the caverns of ignorance and gloom, 
so has mankind failed to develop. 

There appear to be certain avocations in life to which 
even men in their varying attributes and propensities are 



PHRONOCRACY 199 

best adapted and out of which they are usually ill at ease 
and worthless, so to a greater degree do there appear 
to be two certain distinct spheres in life, one to which 
woman is best adapted and out of which she is lost, and 
the other in which the man is the most suitable occupant 
and out of which he is lost. 

There is undoubtedly a vast difference between man- 
kind and womankind. 

" What a strange thing is man, but 
What a stranger thing is woman. 
What a whirlwind is her head, and 
What a whirlpool, full of depth and danger. 
Is all the rest about her. 
What she has said or done is nought to 
What she '11 say or do. 
The oldest thing on record, and yet new." 

Her ideas are different and apparently her conclusions 
are reached by the very opposite course of reasoning to 
that which man would employ. Her ratiocination is 
mysterious, her deductions seldom profound. Yet frailty, 
though the name of many, is not the name of all. Her 
tongue is often nimble and her thoughts oft keen, and 
when good she is oft the best, when honorable she is oft 
the truest, when handsome is oft the most attractive, but 
when bad is oft the very worst thing in the world. 

Differing, as they do, mentally and physically from 
men, why should they not occupy that radically different 
sphere ? Why should they 

" Offer war, where they should kneel for peace ; 
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway. 
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. 
Why are their bodies soft, weak, and smooth. 
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world ; 
But that their soft conditions and their hearts 
Should well agree with their external parts ? " 



200 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

It is urged that the conservative, phronocratic com- 
promise would exclude many men from voting who 
might be forced to serve in war. Why not extend to 
woman the right of voting and exempt them from the 
throes of war ? The answer is simple. The men who 
would be excluded from voting are not fit to vote ; they 
might be fit for war, and if so, so be it ; but women are 
fit neither for voting nor for war, not because of the 
meagreness of their intellectual endowments (for a few 
possess much), but simply because they are women, and 
all deductions of logic, all the force of argument, yea 
more, could be adduced and no better reason could be 
given, and it is quite enough. They are entitled to the 
higher right not to vote and not to serve in the nation's 
defence. The desire to exercise the privilege is usually 
pressed either by husbandless women or childless wives ; 
both living in an unnatural state, hence seek unnatural 
exercises, and cherish unnatural aspirations. It is found, 
too, that where female suffrage has been permitted, such 
as in the election of school trustees and, in some of the 
Western States, of municipal assemblages, the conditions 
as to government are not materially changed, nor is the 
right exercised by a great percentum of the women. All 
tests that can be applied lead the public mind to con- 
clude that in at least three fourths of the cases the wife 
would vote as did the husband, so that in effect it would 
amount to an increase in numbers with the same identi- 
cal results — an increased cumbersomeness without any 
increased efficiency. With women who are not married 
the practice would become a burlesque in which those 
most capable and worthy would seldom participate. 

It is argued that in the marital state women are called 
upon to yield too much to their husbands ; that their 
individuality is absorbed ; that they are nothing, no 



PHRONOCRACY 201 

matter how capable, save what the husband is, no 
matter how worthless. To which it is replied : Would 
not a total extirpation or even a decided alteration 
of this condition be incompatible with the maintenance, 
in its so-called divine integrity, of that psychical and 
material dual-unity that the relationship now recognizes ? 
Is civilization in such a state that said dual-unity should 
be discouraged, much less annulled ? There is as yet, 
perhaps, no decided proposed improvement that can be 
logically supported. Female suffrage would in effect 
alter nothing, and the evil or oppression supposed to 
hamper female development would not be remedied 
by it. 

Women suffer from the contending forces of nature 
and of their fellow-creatures just as men suffer, and, if 
not protected by men, either by marriage or some other 
social contrivance, would, in common strife with men, be 
destroyed by men, simply because men are stronger. 
Such strife can never exist. If the condition and estate 
of men as a class can be improved by curtailing the re- 
sultant monstrosities of society, women as a class will 
receive their share of that relief. Later men may know 
better how to improve woman's condition relative to 
themselves than they now know, and then something 
more efficacious than the ballot will be accorded them. 

Many plans and schemes have been suggested as to a 
modification of the relationship existing between the 
sexes. Some hold marriage to be a failure ; others that 
the bond should be absolutely indissoluble. Some claim 
that there should be no marital tie whatever, but that 
woman should be permitted to exercise what was consid- 
ered her natural right of selection, regarding which her 
instincts are claimed to be keener than man's judgment. 
It is held also by some that by reason of the position 



202 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

women are obliged to occupy in society ; that is, cut off 
from many of the pursuits of occupation and remuneration 
that are always open to man, they are necessarily forced 
into a condition of dependence which causes many, to 
whom the opportunity is presented, to make uncongenial 
matrimonial alliances solely as a means of protection from 
actual want ; that others are driven into the slums of de- 
gradation, licentiousness, and vice from similar motives ; 
in a word, that the dint of necessity, resulting mainly 
from circumscribed opportunity, causes many an unhappy 
marriage and makes many a woman wanton. 

" To lapse in fulness 
Is sorer than to lie for need ; and falsehood 
Is worse in kings than beggars." 

So, likewise, is virtue more likely " never to be moved 
though lewdness court it in the shape of heaven," when 
comfort, contentment, and solace are secure, than when 
the gnarling wolf is grinning at the door. 

It is actually maintained that nine tenths of the inmates 
of brothels, bagnios, and the like are driven there by ne- 
cessity. Women of likely state who can not secure a 
competency, in many cases not even the actual comforts 
in life's honorable pursuits, are forced to yield even to 
mild temptation, and then down, down into the seething 
depths of hell is their inevitable destiny — their funeral 
knell. 

Women are not by nature given either to wantonness or 
concupiscence, and if by some means they could be made 
independent, either by the enlargement of their opportu- 
nities or by any system whatever, the bagnio would yawn 
for inmates and vice would be throttled in its incipiency. 

A theory has therefore been proposed that all women 
who desired it could, by becoming mothers, become pen- 



PHRONOCRACY ' 203 

sioners on society ; that is, that for the maintenance of 
herself and her children, at a certain allotment each, she 
could, if she was void of estate and desired it, draw 
a certain allowance from the government, thought to be a 
sufficiency, until each child should have attained the age 
of sixteen years,, or had reached that stage in maturity at 
which it was thought to have become reasonably capa- 
ble of sustaining itself, and that the woman thereafter 
until death, if she desired, could continue to be a pen- 
sioner to the extent of half the amount allowed to her 
when supporting and rearing her children, during all of 
which time she would be expected to perform no duty to 
the state except that of rearing for ii good citizens ; that 
all children should take the family name of the mother, 
and that the said mother could at liberty take her consort, 
and being then, it was thought, wholly independent, would 
exercise that acuteness of perception in determining na- 
tural selection, deemed to be the woman's superior vir- 
tue and marked intuition. It was held that women who 
took pride in ancestry and hope in posterity could con- 
tinue, as before, to use not only natural selection but 
class distinction as well ; she could take pride in the 
honor of her name and in her ancestral chain the same 
as before, and that under this state of society men and 
women suited to each other would, by the natural happi- 
ness and contentment of their lives, by reason of the 
affinities of their natures, live together as honorably 
as under a dozen marriage bonds, or more so than under 
a dozen dozen if the relationship was not harmonious ; or 
at least they would live together so long, be that for a life 
or a day, as it was mutually pleasant and agreeable, and 
that, under no condition of society, should they live 
together longer or even attempt to do so. 

That in case of separation a woman with estate could 



204 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

be independent ; she would have yielded none of her in- 
dividuality nor none of her estate to the man ; she would 
have subjected herself to no conditions from which she 
could not be released at pleasure, and could rear her 
children as she pleased, and avail herself of pension if 
she desired it. The woman without estate could not 
only maintain herself and her children, hence be thor- 
oughly independent of the man, but would likewise be at 
liberty to free herself from an unhappy association when 
it suited her inclinations. Thus women, instead of par- 
ticipating in government and making themselves liable to 
the rigors of man's necessary avocations, would be made 
the wards of society, with nothing to worry or annoy. 
They could improve their minds by reading books and 
rear their children in quiet, ease, and peace ; that the 
men should do all the labor of the world, incur all its 
risks, exposures, and privations. 

Women will not likely get the ballot extensively, and 
those who favor it will be disappointed, but it will carry 
with it no great regret. Suffrage should be looked upon 
as a duty rather than a privilege, a penalty rather than a 
pleasure. Public service should be shunned rather than 
sought, and at all times considered a " trust " and never 
a reward. Why should women seek to perform this duty, 
when their thoughts can be devoted to things far more 
ennobling ; why, with far greater wrong, should the negro, 
the scullion, and the knave be permitted to perform it, 
when by their votes have been committed crimes so 
heinous to the State, " that the bawdy wind that kisses 
all it meets, is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth and 
will not hear them " ? 

Fair-minded men should rally to the sentiment : 

Let 's have a gentle zephyr and not a howling wind, 
An invigorating breeze and not a frightful blast, 



PHRONOCRACY 205 

A warm, refreshing rain and not a bursting cloud, 
A navigable stream and not a roaring flood, 
A mirror-bosomed sea and not a storm-tossed ocean, 
A calm, contented life, not discord and commotion : 

In fact, moderation and not excess, 

For all mankind is much the best. 



CHAPTER X. 

Effects of true ballot reform — Suppresses the Southern negro and the 
Northern loafer — Election of collectors and postmasters would 
relieve the President and diminish patronage — Collectors' voting 
lists : could not be forged — How voting would be done — Record 
absolutely correct, and votes would be checked by postmasters' 
lists — No need of large property qualification ; purity guaranteed 
without ; would increase the government's stability — Impossible 
to buy votes — Qualified suffrage better than know-nothingism ; 
will cause diversified representation. 

Many efforts have been made to secure what is called 
ballot reform, and all have been of no practical effect. 
In the large cities, from crowded tenements, notwith- 
standing registration, frauds are committed ; in fact, in 
a confused mass of human animals crowded into dens 
and dungeons, with really no habitation of a permanent 
and substantial character, it is impossible to arrive at any 
real and tangible system of ballot reform. 

The only way to reform this class, who have no in- 
terest in any man or principle, but little comprehension 
of what they are doing when they vote, and absolutely" 
no responsibility, — many actually preferring to lodge a 
few nights in jail than otherwise, — is to deprive them of 
the ballot. This class, together with the ignorant and 
degraded negro of the South, make popular suffrage a 
mockery, and really cause the laws and institutions that 
support it to be the proper subjects of ridicule. All 
reasonable men admit it, but the demagogues encourage 
the boodlers with high-sounding platitudes about man- 
hood suffrage and the like. Still, popular opinion is 

206 



PHRONOCRACV 20/ 

waxing strong, and as the population becomes dense the 
necessity for curtailment becomes greater, and the entire 
North is still restive under the pressure of the suppressed 
negro vote of the South. The South will not submit to 
negro domination, and the North cannot force them to 
do so by any feasible plan. It is either to disfranchise 
the negro, or have his vote -counted in Congress and in 
the electoral college, just as the white vote is counted. 
Schemes for deportation to Africa have been devised, 
but since the negro, unfortunately, is a citizen under the 
law, he cannot be forced to leave the civilized white and 
enter into the jungles of Africa with the barbarous 
anthropophagi of that benighted country. In fact, when 
in the state of slavery prior to the war there was scarce 
a negro who would have exchanged that condition of 
slavery for such liberty as he might have secured in 
Africa. There he would have been the slave of some 
barbarous chief, in whose custody his life would be im- 
perilled and be subjected to the discomforts of uncivilized 
conditions, whilst as the slave of his Southern master he 
was usually well fed and clothed, and in the majority of 
cases protected. Deportation has resulted in nothing, 
and disfranchisement can be brought about only by some 
general law applicable to all citizens — let it oppress 
whomsoever it may. This sentiment — the willingness, 
yea, the eagerness of the South to accept it, — and the cry 
of ballot reform in the North, are what must eventually 
bring it about. 

The only legal voters, as a matter of course, would be 
the taxpayers recorded on the books of the collector, 
and their names would have to be registered six months 
before the election ; or, rather, the taxpaying voter must 
have recorded his name and property a half year before 
he became a qualified elector. 



208 . POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

The collectors for each congressional district would 
be obliged to keep an alphabetically arranged list of 
these names, which would be by no means difficult, and 
these would be required to be printed in pamphlets and 
sent to the clerks and judges of elections at every polling 
precinct. 

The voter on election day, when seeking to record his 
vote, would give his name and address to the clerk of 
his poll, which latter would refer at once to his alpha- 
betical list of voters supplied in the pamphlet from the 
collector, and if the said name and address was found 
therein duly recorded the would-be voter would then be 
required to write his signature in the poll-book in legible 
English, and, if requested, to read a section of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, after which he could cast his ballot. 
In national and in some State elections, where the can- 
didates were not numerous, a recording-box could be 
used in place of a ballot-box. One of these could be 
labelled with the name of each candidate ; that is, for 
President, Congressman, Collector, Postmaster, and so 
forth. The voter, after having registered his name, 
could then, instead of depositing his ballot, simply touch 
the handle of the box labelled with the name of the man 
for whom he wished to vote, and the vote would be 
recorded openly. The aggregate of these would have 
to agree with the number of signatures recorded, or 
fraud would be prima facie. To prevent dishonest 
clerks and judges from forging the signatures on the 
poll-books of men recorded in the collector's list who 
had not appeared at the polls to vote, the officers of 
each precinct could be required to give to the postmasters 
in that precinct or town at the close of the polls a list of 
the men who voted. These lists the postmaster should 
print and hold in readiness for any man who should 



PHRONOCRACV 209 

desire to receive one on application at his office for six 
months succeeding the election. Thus, if any man who 
had not presented himself at the polls should find his 
name recorded he would at once discover the fraud and 
forgery ; hence this would be dangerous business. Never 
could more votes be recorded than those on the collec- 
tor's list, and these would have to agree as to exact names 
and address. 

It is by such means that fraud can be absolutely pre- 
vented, and that, too, without the necessity of the expen- 
sive and non-effectual registration system now in force in 
large cities. 

1 st. The collection list would make known, six 
months in advance, who were the voters and where they 
resided. 

2d. A printed copy of this list in the hands of the 
judges and clerks of election would be a complete regis- 
tration. 

3d. The signature of each voter who appeared at the 
polls to the book in his own handwriting, when compared 
with the name on the printed copy of the collector's 
record, would be a complete guaranty that that particular 
individual was a lawful voter and that he could read 
and write English. 

4th. The total number of recorded votes could not be 
in excess of the collector's list. 

5th. If there remained say one thousand uncast votes, 
that is, if one thousand or any other number of men 
recorded on the collector's list failed to appear, it would 
be, in the first place, difficult for the clerks or judges or 
any one else to forge their names and then count the 
votes, for the penalty for such fraud would be very 
severe ; but an additional safeguard, and an effectual 
one, would be the requirement that the names of all 
14 



2IO POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

men who were recorded on the poll-book should be 
reported to the postmaster and by him printed on lists 
and held ready for delivery to any man who should 
apply for six months after the election. Thus, if John 
Smith or Joe Jones, living at No. 10 Mulberry Lane, 
should find their names on the postmaster's list when 
they were not near the polls on election day, it might, in 
fact would, almost certainly send the clerks and judges 
of that poll to the State prison. The fact is, the system 
would be so simple and complete that frauds would 
not be attempted, and the question of ballot reform 
would be forever and effectually settled. In all elec- 
tions, that is, State and municipal as well as national, 
the collector's list would be the only authorized and 
legal list of voters ; but the localities would sometimes 
differ in their method of counting the votes as cast. 
The registry box and no ballot is to be preferred, but to 
have one of these for every candidate for every little 
office would sometimes be considered too expensive. 

Every candidate could, however, provide one for him- 
self. The State should incur the expense of printing 
tickets at all elections for State and local offices, and 
the Federal Government, through the collector's office, 
could provide all boxes and other appliances for national 
elections. Boxes could be provided for all recognized 
candidates of any party organization, and, as stated, 
independent candidates could either provide boxes for 
themselves or trust to the will of their supporter to drop 
ballots into the box, in which case the ballots and records 
of the boxes must, when aggregated, equal the number 
of signatures on the books. 

Usually there would be but few independent candi- 
dates. Nearly every man who ran for office would be 
the prearranged nominee of a very considerable party. 



PHRONOCRACV 211 

The voters would be of a higher character, and would 
usually have their minds made up in advance, so that 
any claptrap hoodlum who sought to create a sensation 
would usually count only his labor for his pains, and 
such would be few. 

The qualification for suffrage as set forth in the 
amendment is the ability to read and write the English 
language and be the lawful owner of property in value 
not less than $500. This property should be either real 
estate to said value, which really signifies practically that 
the voter must own real estate (for almost any piece of 
real estate in America is worth that, amount of money), or 
it must be government bonds, or both, aggregating said 
amount. Real estate can be seen and has a value known 
in effect to all, and government bonds likewise have a 
value that is known to all ; hence it would be impossible 
for the collector to admit to his list as a voter (who might 
be one of his chums) any man on the presentation of 
a security that was practically worthless. Since the 
rate of taxation on $500 would be so very insignificant 
the collector or any candidate for office might issue to 
his friends valueless stock certificates or worthless bonds, 
and pay the tax thereon just for the purpose of secur- 
ing the vote of the individual, but this could not so well 
be done (in fact it would be too expensive) as the real 
estate or government bonds — both of which would always 
have a value readily ascertainable. The only way to 
purify the electoral system is to purify it, and though 
some educated individuals would not have the $500, and 
though some men owning many times $500 could not 
write their names, yet this would be their misfortune, as 
the community has already suffered too long the prostitu- 
tion of its public affairs, to listen longer to such puerile 
complaints as would be made by these individuals. It is 



212 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

" Get there, Ely, or stay out, and you need not whine 
about it either." The rigidity of the law would work 
much good with the people. Citizenship would have 
character and value and be prized. There would be a 
reward held out first for merit then for energy. The 
masses would be encouraged to learn something and to 
save something. Not only would the requirement as to 
the possession either of government bonds or real estate 
be made unconditional for the reasons named above, but 
because it would increase the firmness and stability of 
the Federal Government. Residents of States who would 
acquire their right to citizenship by the ownership of 
the securities of the government of the nation would 
not want to see that nation dismembered. Owners of 
real estate are likewise conservative. The amount would 
not be large, but it would be sufficient, and if not so 
could be increased. 

The widow's mite is more than Croesus' wealth in 
insuring conservatism of purpose. It is not a question 
of how much a man might own, but the very fact that he 
owns anything is a perfect guaranty and sufficient evi- 
dence of a trustworthy and frugal man to entitle him 
to its privileges. The bonds of the government for 
this purpose should bear say two per cent, interest 
only, and then of course be subjected to the cumulative 
rate. They would not be intended as an investment for 
profit, but for citizenship ; hence no capitalist would 
seek their possession in large amounts. They should be 
on sale at every post-office in the country in amounts of 
ten dollars and upwards, so that any frugal man could 
gradually accumulate his competency for citizenship by 
small monthly purchases. Thus would the government 
be made a kind of savings-bank for the people, and it 
would be found that many voters would acquire their 
eligibility with these bonds. 



PHRONOCRACY 213 

On the basis of the voting population of 1890, it is 
estimated that not more than 15,000 thereof own fully 
half the property, and if the qualification system was in 
force it might possibly be that, of the ten million voters, 
one third, or about three million, would acquire eligi- 
bility. There might after the system became operative 
be only about one fourth of the adult males of the coun- 
try who would be entitled to suffrage, and this, too, after 
years had passed, during which in anticipation of its 
inevitable adoption preparation could have been and 
doubtless would be to a certain extent made. On this 
basis not more than three out of twelve million would 
have voted in 1890. One half of this three million at 
least would acquire their eligibility by investments in 
bonds, so that on the basis of the vote of 1890 there 
would have been issued by the government for citizen- 
ship purposes the considerable sum of at least seven 
hundred million dollars of bonds. In 1920, on the basis 
of past increase, population will be doubled, antl by rea- 
son of the equalizing effects of the cumulative tax, half 
the property, instead of being owned by about one four- 
hundreth of the voters who are supposed to own it in 
1890, will doubtless be owned by a much larger propor- 
tion. In other words, there would be in any event about 
six million votes in all in 1920, out of a total population 
of say 120,000,000 and a male population of 20,000,000. 
Each year would add to the list of voters proportionately 
to the non-voters, but there never will, if in fact there 
ever should, come a time when all men would own prop- 
erty even in small amounts. In 1920 there should be 
3,000,000 voters acquiring eligibility from the posses- 
sion of the two per cent, bonds, and if so the govern- 
ment would be in debt to its citizens — distributed in 
all parts of the Union — to the extent of one billion 
five hundred million dollars. This maximum would 



214 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

accumulate slowly and it would be about the only debt 
the government should owe, and that to its own citizens, 
which would cause national pride in America to be 
almost if not quite as prominent a characteristic of the 
people as it has always been in France. The accumula- 
tion of money in the treasury by reason of the sale of 
these bonds might render it unnecessary some years for 
the government to impose all the cumulative tax, and it 
could be horizontally cut down for certain periods. 
Frequently the amount in the treasury might be suffi- 
cient for the government's needs ; but, of course, as 
bonds began to mature the tax would have to be applied 
to such an extent as was necessary to meet the current 
expense as well as to provide for maturities. This would 
be a matter of easy regulation by the Secretary of the 
Treasury, and Congress would simply, upon the Treas- 
urer's report, instruct the collectors to increase or reduce 
the cumulative tax a certain specific percentum. It. 
might never occur that the cumulative levy would have 
to be reduced, but if so it would be simple and unaltered 
in its relative bearing on the large and small estates. 
The property valuation of the country will continue 
well apace with the increase in population at the 
ratio of about 1,000 per head, so that in 1920 the 
valuation will be, if things continue, about one hundred 
and twenty billion, and what is more and better, it may 
be owned by over six million men, and each year the 
number of individual owners may be increasing instead 
of diminishing, as is the case before the cumulative 
balance wheel to society is applied. The annual expense 
of the Federal Government should not be proportionately 
increased, but should remain not much greater than 
three hundred million, which amount would doubtless be 
fully secured by the cumulative levy. 



PHRONOCRACY 21 5 

It may be argued by the capitalists that $500 in real 
estate or government bonds is not enough, or that design- 
ing politicians could make votes at their pleasure, or that 
a candidate for office could transfer temporarily a small 
piece of land or $500 in bonds to non-voting individu- 
als with the understanding that it be returned after 
election. This objection is acknowledged, but the can- 
didate would have to be out of pocket for six months. 
Every dollar thus transferred would be unlawful, and to 
secure many votes the candidate's purse would have to 
be long, and then, if after election the collector would 
find that many voters were making re-transfers, his sus- 
picions and that of the public would be aroused, and the 
candidate might soon wear stripes as the fruit of his 
generosity. Furthermore, $500, whilst but little to mil- 
lionaires, is considerable to the average candidate. If a 
man deserved election to Congress he would have to 
secure over ten thousand votes. If he should think 
himself short one thousand votes, he would require 
$500,000 for six months, with much trouble as to its 
return and heavy penalty for the wrong, altogether ren- 
dering it extremely improbable that he would pursue this 
course. If he should, however, desire so to do, he would 
find it just that much more difficult of accomplishment 
than under any previous system. When, as seems to be 
the probable condition even under cumulative tax laws, 
one four-hundredth of the voters may own one half the 
property, and one third the remaining male people the 
other half, there will not be, on a basis of $1,000 wealth 
per capita, too many $500 bills remaining to make suf- 
frage too common, and at any rate it would be less 
common and of purer character than under any other 
system. Furthermore, the amendment can provide that 
it may be increased to $5,000 by simple act of Congress, 



2l6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

or the cumulative levy could be decreased to half cent 
per thousand, making ten million the maximum instead 
of five. It is thought wise and prudent not to go too far 
too soon. Later the former could be increased, if the 
increase should be found desirable, but as a beginning 
$500 is ample and will work wondrous results. It is just 
about as low as anybody thought it could be, and yet 
enough to elevate the tone of suffrage, increase the 
character of representation and the stability of govern- 
mental institutions and the natural rights of property to 
an amazing extent, and ten millions is thought to be too 
high a limit for one individual's estate. 

The native-American agitation called the " Know- 
Nothing " party had for its objects the Americanization 
of the nation and the elevation of the character of suf- 
frage. It was held that no man should hold office or vote 
until he had been in the country full one-and-twenty 
years. This party failed to acquire any ascendancy, 
though to a certain extent its purposes were sound. 

It was, in fact, to such an extent anathematized and 
scorned that those who, in 1890, had ever had any sym- 
pathy with or attachment to the organization were almost 
proscribed from participation in all public affairs. There 
is no good reason why a foreigner could not become a 
good citizen. America is so far removed from the na- 
tional contentions and strife that characterize all Europe 
that it is in no sense complicated thereby. It is far 
better that a reputable, educated, naturalized foreigner 
who owns property should vote, than that a disreputable, 
ignorant, and indigent native should exercise that privi- 
lege ; for one is responsible and the other is not ; one, 
though he has been but five years in the country, yet has 
sworn to support its laws and aid in its defence, and as 
a better guaranty of his ability and sincerity he has be- 



PHRONOCRACY 2\J 

come possessed of some of its property, perhaps some 
of its bonds, and having learned to speak, read, and write 
English, is capable of becoming informed as to its 
governmental and commercial policy. Of the participa- 
tion of this man in suffrage there need never be any 
fear, and there is no good sense in naming twenty-one 
years as the minimum of residence if proper qualifica- 
tion could be attained in five. 

Many native-born Americans are not fit to vote in forty 
years, but yet some foreigners might be qualified in one 
year. However, five years is thought to be a reasonable 
period of residence to enable a foreigner to determine 
whether or not he desires to become a citizen, and this 
period should not be altered. Any foreigner, after that 
time, who takes the oath of allegiance, and can speak, 
read, and write the English language and has acquired 
property, should vote. 

This will make a better citizen and more worthy voter 
than simply twenty-one years of residence, if he remains 
yet comparatively a pauper and an ignoramus. 

To the presidency alone is a foreign-born man not 
eligible, and this is perhaps proper from a standpoint of 
national pride, a feeling peculiar to all people. The 
foreign element of the States who own property are 
numbered among its best and most substantial citizens, 
and are always law-abiding and conservative. The wild- 
eyed anarchist, who would pillage, kill, and burn, never 
owns property, and when he becomes an owner he is 
never an anarchist. It is held that the inability to ob- 
tain work causes men to become furious against the pos- 
sessors of property to a greater extent than the prompt- 
ings of envy or a disposition to force a divide. It does 
appear rather severe that a man who is willing and 
anxious to do so cannot toil. Yet this is undeniably the 



2l8 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

case in very many instances ; but it is simply a relative 
condition as compared with the state of his fellows, and 
unavoidable from the very nature of society ; in other 
words, it is his own misfortune, resulting principally 
from his own inaction or imprudence ; but it may have 
been brought about by accident. Lightning may have 
prostrated him in the street, causing him to be unable to 
labor ; hence, naturally, if he ever had one, he would, 
unless very worthy, be apt to lose his job. A poor 
devil sometimes can't get work — that is, cannot toil, so 
likewise does a lawyer sometimes sit in his office for long 
and weary days and receive no clientage, so also a doc- 
tor may for many days have no patients, and both of 
these men are idle ; that is, they can't get work, they 
can't toil. So, likewise, is a merchant or manufacturer 
at times bereft of business, he has no orders and cannot 
run his mill ; so not only is his time going to waste, but 
his capital, accumulated under the natural operations of 
trade and by his frugality and energy, is slipping from 
under his feet. The conditions of these three citizens 
in three different avocations are precisely alike — they can- 
not toil. The latter class, however, by dint of their in- 
herent excellence have made more hay while the sun 
was shining than they used during that period ; hence, 
though they cannot perhaps for a long period toil, have 
conserved the results of previous toil, and can live until 
the unfortunate situation has passed. The laboring man, 
or rather the profligate laboring man, who has not con- 
served the result of his energies, must suffer actual want, 
just as should the other three under similar circum- 
stances and conditions. Much, but not all, poverty is 
the result of human worthlessness and improvidence. 

That which comes from accident and disease is the 
result of misfortune. It would be especially desirable 



PHRONOCRACY 219 

upon the part of society to lift the pangs of want from 
the shoulders of the latter, and even to a certain extent 
from the heads of the former, and it is now done to the 
greatest extent possible, in the maintenance of houses 
for the poor, and hospitals for the sick and the maimed. 
To extend it farther would be to place a premium on 
idleness and malingery. 

Therefore, if by reason of improvidence or accident 
a man is dragged down, his condition is simply a 
relative one when compared with his fellows. He is 
not, therefore, entitled to their support except in cases 
of direst extremity. To deprive a man of citizenship 
because he has by dint of misfortune been deprived 
of property, is claimed to be a double calamity ; but 
it is decided to be more unjust to deprive another 
man of most of his wealth and then subject that which 
remains to the vote of the anarchist. Partial wrong 
may be done to both, but it is to the interest of society 
that it should be so. The system of voting, therefore, 
that excludes the lowly, the indigent, and the depraved, 
should be held in its integrity, and all other efforts at 
reforming the ballot should be abandoned. Half the 
population of America is suburban, yet the agricultural 
classes seldom elect a governor in any State. Under 
the cumulative and qualification system the rural vote 
would be increased ; that is, it would be decreased less 
than the city vote ; so that in the aggregate it would 
count almost two votes to one. This is the remedy for 
the Farmers' Alliance. 

Prior to the inauguration of this system the Federal 
Congress will almost always be composed of about three 
fifths lawyers, and the upper branch of same will be 
about four fifths millionaires and upwards. This can be 
entirely changed. The rural classes can have largely 



220 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

increased representation, and the lawyers can be reduced 
to about one fifth the whole. Merchants and manufac- 
turers, who have accumulated that amount beyond which 
the cumulative rate forbade them to go, will become 
what in France is called the Rentier, that is, a man re- 
tired from business and living on his income. 

This class of citizens being then exempt from the 
cares of business could engage to a greater extent than 
heretofore in politics, and the result would bo that almost 
all industries, as well as the agriculturists, would have 
very considerable representation. This would produce 
good legislation, and such as would be adapted to 
the multifarious wants of the country. The large cities 
would more frequently send lawyers than those situ- 
ated in districts which were part rural and part urban. 
There would be no longer any question in political 
discussion as to tariffs., taxes, protection, and the like. 
All parties would recognize and admit that the general 
government has no power, either express or implied, to 
tax the people for any purpose whatsoever, save for 
revenue ; that all systems of protection, of subsidy, of 
bonuses, and the like are retroactive and discriminating, 
and since the mode and method of obtaining revenue 
would be positively fixed on the basis of the cumulative 
rate of all property, as assessed by the respective con- 
gressional collectors, there would remain nothing relative 
to or in any way bearing upon this subject for Congress 
to perform, save to impose a percentum of horizontal 
increase or decrease, as the annual report of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury might indicate to be necessary. 
Thus the whole matter of taxes, tariff, and the like, that 
has for years occupied most all the attention of the 
federal legislature and caused widespread differences of 
opinion as to the special rate imposed on different ar- 



PHRONOCRACY 221 

tides of import, and which has forced the Committee of 
Ways and Means to listen to the tiresome and useless 
harangues of representatives of special interests, would 
be entirely set aside, so that the attention of the repre- 
sentatives could be with more deliberation directed to 
matters of greater import. So universally recognized 
also would become the principle that Congress should 
deal less with individual affairs — that is, legislate less 
with and as regards matters of individual determination, 
that the sessions would usually be very much shorter. 
In years gone by the average representative has begun 
to look upon himself as the master or guardian of the 
people, rather than as their agent, chosen to do their 
bidding in conformity with his wisest discretion for the 
greatest good to the greatest number. Members in for- 
mer years have actually introduced bills not alone for 
the prevention of the importation of merchandise, thus 
preventing the people from availing themselves of the 
world's cheapest and best markets and causing unjust 
discrimination to certain individuals, but greater and 
more ridiculous and presumptuous has been their folly 
in endeavoring to pass laws forbidding individuals from 
selling their lands to any one save a citizen of the 
country. The people should become indignant, and 
justly so, at such interference with the natural laws of 
barter and exchange. " Why," it may be asked, " do 
not these congressional idiots and fools let us alone ? 
Do they think we need guardians ? If so our local 
courts can appoint same, and we will apply for congres- 
sional aid to assist the local courts when we desire, and 
not before. Do they think that because they are daft 
we are also, on the theory that a drunken man thinks 
everybody else drunk ? " For years it has been recog- 
nized that a citizen could take up and occupy the public 



222 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

domain, from which he is entitled to one hundred and 
sixty acres, and though efforts are frequently made, no 
law should be passed that will prevent citizens from sell- 
ing whatever they own to whomsoever will pay them 
their price. 



CHAPTER XL 

Trade, money, work, and wages — Convict labor no great harm to 
honest labor — Corporal punishment should be resumed for small 
crimes — Child labor — Eight-hour agitation — Scientific invention 
no obstacle to labor — Causes of increased urban population — 
Circulating medium : money ; gold coin the best — Qualities the 
circulating medium should possess — Silver money, iron money — 
Government "fiat" money as good as the government's sov- 
ereignty — Must be redeemable in something representing the 
value of labor — Increased quantity not beneficial — Purchases 
forced on the government wrong, and should be stopped — Gold, 
and gold only, finally adopted ; no double standard — Banks and 
banking — National banks continued. 

The supposed evil effects from immigration and other 
incidental economic questions having been frequently- 
discussed, and the public mind also placed at rest on the 
question of the over-population of a country capable of 
sustaining one billion or more, when it has less than one 
tenth that number ; and since protection tariffs have 
been by many admitted to be useless and discriminating, 
there naturally arise other questions, which should have 
their full share of consideration, but it is useless to at- 
tempt to regulate everything by legislation directed to 
each supposed wrong in its individual capacity. Some 
people have brought forth the argument that the labor 
of convicts in prisons causes such competition with free 
and honest labor outside that this must be stopped ; 
others have opposed by saying that it is better to make 
them work than to maintain them in idleness. If it cost 

223 



224 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

one dollar per week to board and clothe a convict, he 
had better be made to earn it than to be idling away his 
time ; others have persisted in saying that a man boarded 
and clothed at one dollar per week would interfere with 
the work and wages of honest men, causing them to 
suffer a reduction in pay, so that it would become only 
a question how many men would become convicts and 
work at one dollar per week until all outside labor would 
be receiving the same insufficient pay, and that this condi- 
tion is now alarming, and must be stopped. Others have 
very wisely replied that the condition could not be alarm- 
ing, because it is to be hoped that convicts would not be so 
numerous, but, at any rate, if wages were forced down to 
one dollar per week everybody would find that the said 
dollar would buy a great deal more than a dollar now 
does, if not quite as much as do their ordinary wages. 
Still the question of convict labor is assuming some 
scope. 

The prisons are filling rapidly ; in fact it is said that 
many residents of the slums of the large cities would, but 
for the fact that they could not sell their votes, about as 
soon be in the pen as any other residence, and about as 
soon be called a convict as any other name (for if called 
a rose he would smell as sweet), yet he does not like to 
be deprived of his chance to sell his vote for a drink. 
Thus universal suffrage has perhaps one argument in its 
favor ; it does tend to prevent the drunkards from volun- 
tarily entering the penitentiary. 

However, the question as to what is the best thing to 
be done with convicts calls for attention. Their labor 
does not seriously interfere with outside labor because 
many of the inmates have become defaulting bank 
cashiers and they do little work, yet the prisons are 
becoming crowded. The reason for this is that about 



PHRONOCRACY 22 5 

the only penalty for crime that the sentimentalists of the 
country consider not barbarous is imprisonment, and this 
has to be prescribed for all. Not so much by reason of 
the fact that convict labor is interfering with outside 
labor, but because many seem to have become so de- 
praved that they care little for incarceration, is it found 
absolutely necessary to alter the universally prevailing 
plan of punishment by imprisonment. Thus for small 
and petty offences — such as would put a culprit in jail 
for from one to five months — notwithstanding the outcry 
of the sentimentalists which hitherto has prevented many 
a good alteration in the affairs of the state, corporal 
punishment should be reinstated in all the States of the 
Union ; that is, instead of sending a man to prison to 
become worthless, from enforced idleness, more de- 
praved, if possible, from evil association, confirmed in 
his lowliness and dejection by being constantly in that 
environment, and, to a certain extent, if occupied, to 
compete with honest labor, they should thrash him for his 
misdemeanors and then let him go. Some punishment 
has to be inflicted and experience has shown this to 
be the best. The culprit would then be no longer a 
charge upon the state, he would earn his own bread, 
or receive none, and the effect would be very whole- 
some. Many now serve a short sentence, are liberated, 
and then return for a simil-ar offence, but few who would 
receive the lash would want it soon again. Thus could 
the prisons be purged and the annoyance, slight as it is, 
to outside labor settled and prevented. 

Then comes the questions of child labor, eight-hour 
day, and " kindred cries for kinder keep." It does not 
look proper on the face of the papers to see little chil- 
dren forced to toil, but their parents must be able to care 

for them otherwise or the state must take them in charge, 
15 



226 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

and then comes the old question " what can the state 
do ? " " how far can it go ? " without encouraging idleness 
and inviting malingery. 

Would not many parents feign inability to provide 
so as to put their children on to the state for support ? 
Such not only appears to be a reasonable probability but 
it certainly would be the case, so that public houses for the 
care of children can safely be maintained only to the ex- 
tent of actual necessity and in cases of proven worth, so 
that able-bodied children cannot be admitted ; hence 
some are obliged to work for the simple reason that their 
father, either by idleness, negligence, misfortune, stu- 
pidity, or for some other cause, has failed to provide for 
their sustenance in idleness. Either these children must 
bide these unavoidable results or they must be put aside 
with their mothers, and their mothers pensioned till they 
reach a self-sustaining age, and this appears to be im- 
practicable, though much favored by many of the women 
of the world. 

Then comes the eight-hour discussion. It looks well 
on the face of the papers. One third of the time for re- 
freshment and ease, one third for labor, and one third for 
enjoyment and pleasure tickles the ear. Likewise does it 
look reasonable that if working hours are reduced more 
men could secure jobs. If 10 men do a certain job on 
the io-hour basis in 10 days it would certainly require i 
man ioo days to do that job at 10 hours per day, and 
it would take 8 men 12^ days to do it at 10 hours per 
day ; hence it must take at least 12^ men to do it at 
8 hours per day, or if the hours of labor are reduced one 
fifth, or 20 per cent., that reduction is equivalent to an in- 
crease of 25 per cent., so that one fourth the number of 
men, in addition to those at first employed, would be re- 
quired, and this alone would give employment to at least 



PHRONOCRACY 227 

from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 men in America, frequently 
doomed to perpetual idleness for at least one fourth of 
their time. Hence great and widespread has been the sup- 
port of the eight-hour day. People should reflect that if 
an inch is cut off one end of a stick and then pasted on 
to the other the stick is no shorter. How could an em- 
ployer, in the general outcome of the thing, pay as much 
for 8 hours' work as he formerly paid for 10 hours' work 
without advancing the price of his product ? or it is cer- 
tainly clear that if he is obliged to pay 12 J men the same 
price per day that he previously paid to 10, that excess 
must be added to the price of his goods or he would soon 
become bankrupt. 

Ten men at $2.00 per day cost $20.00 per day. Twelve 
and one half men at $2.00 cost $25.00, so that $5 has 
been added to this cost of the product and must be added 
to the price — why not ? Thus it becomes self-evident 
that the eight-hour law would mean in the end either one 
of two things, to wit : Wages would be reduced 20 per 
cent, or the price of products would be increased 20 
per cent. What matters it to the workman whether he 
receives $2.00 per day and to obtain the necessaries of 
life he is obliged to spend 90 per cent, of that, or whether 
he receives $r.8o and is obliged to spend 90 per cent, of 
that ? Thus it must be acknowledged that, it matters not 
how plausible it looks on the outside, in the general wind- 
up there would be nothing in it except the happy realiza- 
tion of the fancied dream, which is in itself considerable, 
that " one third for work and one third for play and one 
third to sleep the time away," is most conducive to 
human happiness. 

This division of the time might cause men to labor 
more earnestly for the eight hours they toiled, but then 
the eight hours of idleness would cause some to imbibe 



228 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

too much grog, which they would not do if engaged for 
ten hours, and so on to the end. The eight-hour system 
would be a very nice division of the time, and for this 
reason might be better, but wages, or the purchasing 
power thereof, would not be relatively changed. The 
only way possible of maintaining a wage rate in excess 
of that warranted by demand is to control the supply 
by trades unions or otherwise, and this can only be 
temporary. 

The eight-hour system resulting in no good, many re- 
formers have begun to inveigh against the encouragement 
of scientific invention on the theory that each machine 
that is invented must have for its chief merit the fact that 
it is " labor-saving," otherwise it would be useless ; that 
every machine that can be operated by steam is neces- 
sarily a displacement of that much energy that the people 
would otherwise supply, and to that extent the laboring 
classes are said to be injured ; and that it remains only a 
question how much machinery that is ''labor-saving" 
would be introduced until all the labor would be saved, 
or, in other words, till machinery would do it all. For- 
merly, it was claimed that it required many farm hands, 
at about $1.50 per day, in the harvest field to do what 
one man and a team of horses can now do with a self- 
binding reaper in less than half the time. This appears 
to be a direct interference with manual toil, as also do 
a thousand similar devices, from the manufacture of 
needles and pins to threshing machines and locomotives, 
and some hold that the only possible relief is to check 
the introduction of " labor-saving machinery." It ap- 
pears to some reformers and their erudite (?) coterie of 
megatherium philosophers, that if one machine would 
save half the labor, then certainly two would save it ail, 
and that enforced idleness and starvation would be the 



PHRONOCRACY 



229 



people's inevitable doom— a condition too utterly de- 
plorable to be contemplated with composure, and "that 
we must arise, shake the dewdrops from our eyes, and 
stoutly bid defiance to the universal earth ! ! " Yes, 't is 
true and 't is a pity 't is true as it is. Superficially con- 
sidered it does appear as though there might be an inter- 
ference, and to the extent of changing or, as it were, to 
a certain degree, shifting the character of labor, there is 
an interference. 

However, to the condition of mankind as a whole 
there is no injury, but, on the contrary, an advantage. 
In the first place, it certainly requires a certain amount 
of labor to make the machine, which, by reason of its 
previous non-existence, called for no labor. This of 
course has a tendency to convert farm labor into factory 
labor, and to the extent that the conversions could not 
be immediately accomplished there would be a dearth of 
mechanics— of factory employes— or, at least, a greater 
demand for same, and a corresponding plethora of farm 
labor, or, at least, a less demand for same, which will 
work a temporary inconvenience which time alone can 
adjust. This is one of the greatest causes for the in- 
crease of the population of cities or manufacturing 
centres in excess of or more rapidly than the out or rural 
districts. The introduction of machinery has, to a cer- 
tain extent, diminished the demand for farm labor, but 
has increased the call for city labor, and the facts are 
that the urban population of America has for many years 
increased much more rapidly than the suburban, which 
condition, though natural and unavoidable, is not espe- 
cially to be desired. 

People, like grains of sand or drifting snow, will 
naturally gravitate to places of least resistance, and it 
is almost a safe conclusion to say that the apparently 



230 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

crowded conditions of large manufacturing and com- 
mercial cities is not in fact a curse but a necessity 
— rather that the demand for labor brings them there, or 
that by reason of the demand they come there. There 
are always thousands of avenues for occupation in large 
cities that do not exist in the country, and whilst it is 
not safe to say that that which is is always the best, it is 
safe to say that it is the unavoidable result of certain 
conditions, and can only be altered, if altered at all, by 
a change of the conditions. Under present systems of 
taxation, where it is not recognized that individuals 
should contribute to the government in proportion to 
their ability, and when it is held or supposed that the 
right and proper thing to do is to permit them to con- 
tribute in exact disproportion to their ability — that is, that 
all of a poor man's estate shall be taxed to full value and 
at full rate while one tenth or less of a rich man's estate 
is sufficient for a levy, — and when it is not admitted that 
by increasing the rate proportionately to the property the 
effects of secretiveness could be almost entirely counter- 
acted even if more efficient means of assessment should 
fail in its object, then and under these conditions one 
man can become possessed of a million men's labor, and 
it is but the natural result of the existing conditions. 
This, however, can only be altered by altering the con- 
ditions, which can be done by " cumulative taxation," 
recognizing man's right to an abundance but not to a 
redundance of the world's effects and property. 

The result of operating agencies which cause the in- 
creased populations of cities results in no serious conse- 
quences, as the operations of natural agencies seldom 
do, but it has concentrated the poorer classes therein, 
which makes their condition more glaring. The farmer, 
with his horses, his machines, and a few boys, can handle 



PHRONOCRACV 23 1 

a large crop, thus making the labor of many farm hands 
useless, or at least reducing the demand for it. 

Not only is the creation and manufacture of the 
machine an item of compensation as against the sup- 
posed interference with labor, but the increased facilities 
for production cheapens the article produced, either by 
increasing its excellence or by directly decreasing its 
price. Likewise also does increased facility for the per- 
formance of labor increase the amount of labor that will 
be performed, as, for example, before the hole was dis- 
covered to be in the wrong end of the needle, or rather, 
before sewing machines were invented, the number of 
ruffles and flounces on a woman's dress was not so 
numerous as afterwards. Neither when a single black- 
smith forged a shaft with his hand, hammer, and anvil 
were such large shafts forged as when done by machinery, 
and thus throughout the list it will be found that in- 
creased facility either compensates by increased cheap- 
ness or increased energy the supposed loss to labor, and 
the temporary inconvenience experienced in converting 
that labor from one class into another is of little serious 
consequence. The entire discussion of such subjects as 
these presupposes a total lack of knowledge or compre- 
hension of that fundamental law of nature which is " that 
energy cannot be conserved " ; where there is a cause 
there is an effect — where there is energy and force ap- 
parent there is action and motion that is perceptible. A 
machine cannot be created that will supplant or destroy 
the exercise of energy without the use of energy in the 
construction of the machine, and so on to the end of 
time. If scientific inventions were in fact an interference 
with labor, the progress of all thought and development 
would of necessity stop. But there is— must be— a com- 
pensation. If some man would invent a machine that 



232 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

he could suspend in the air and attach a huge belt to a 
pulley and thence with his belt reach around the world 
so that the rotary motion of the latter would propel the 
machine, and then devise another machine that would 
supply the material required without the use of labor, 
and cause these machines to proceed to grind out 
victuals and clothing, they certainly would interfere with 
labor, but the people would get their wants supplied for 
nothing or without labor. In the general wind-up, in 
the end — the ultima thule, — labor is the thing that creates 
the value ; no machinery having value can be made 
without labor, and the more efficient its operations when 
made the more excellent or the cheaper its product. 
Successful men acquire their wealth because they make 
a profit off of other men's labor, as has been discussed, 
and by reason of causes wholly natural and unavoidable 
and entirely with the consent of the employe, who need 
not work for another if he prefers to idle away his time, 
and instead of earning his bread can try to use his wits 
and steal it. 

This accumulated wealth does not always reduce the 
price of its compensation in the same ratio as the re- 
duction in the competitive price of labor, and it is to the , 
extent of this difference only that the prices of commodi- 
ties that wages buy are not reduced identically the same 
as wages. 

For the convenience of the world and for the expedi- 
tion of its business — to facilitate exchanges, — there has 
been introduced in it the intermediary article called 
money. Trade is simply exchange — the boot-makers ex- 
change boots for hats and the whole thing is illustrated ; 
both buy, both sell. The function of money is only to 
facilitate exchanges. 



PHRONOCRACY 233 

Since all men who want boots do not want hats, or not 
so many hats as boots, and so on throughout the lists, 
for convenience the said calculating medium (money) 
has been introduced in all civilized countries. This 
money either represents value in itself or there is behind 
it a guaranty that has value. In the most advanced 
trading nations of the world in 1890 (the United States 
and England) money is gold coin ; gold is the standard 
— the yard-stick — by which other things are measured. 
Gold is,, and doubtless always will be the best metal for 
money. It has not intrinsic value in the sense that it 
can be eaten or worn, but men will expend considerable 
labor for a very small amount of it, and as the fondness 
of the people for its possession has existed for countless 
years, and since it appears as though the time will never 
come when men will not give their labor for a very small 
amount of it, it may be looked upon as a thing of rea- 
sonably reliable value, so that a gold coin, whether 
backed by the stamp of one nation or another, is equally 
good when of equal weight and fineness. In the progress 
of the world's affairs this facilitation of exchanges is 
necessary. The most perfect money would be something 
that has absolute value in itself — that is, a thing that 
requires no government backing, and which the world 
would accept, — a thing coined or fashioned in some 
convenient way, and such that all governments would 
recognize as a tender for a debt that could be enforced. 
However, all governments prefer to have their own coin, 
and each prefers to issue it and each to make its own coin 
a legal tender for debt. If John Smith owed Tom Jones 
value to the extent of one hundred dollars, he could not 
make him take a horse for it, but he could make him take 
money — say, one hundred dollars in American coin. 
Usually Jones would prefer the dollars because he would 



234 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

know that some other fellow would give him for them a 
horse or anything else he desired of no greater value. 
Thus the wealth represented by money is the kind of 
wealth that is most convenient to handle ; but since the 
world's exchanges, or the exchanges of a nation, can be 
accomplished with an amount of wealth in this shape of 
much less value than the whole of its property, a very 
small per cent, thereof exists in the shape of legal-ten- 
der money, coin or its equivalent. The circulating 
medium may be more or less, just as may be preferred 
by the nation that issued it. Wealth in this shape would 
not be required at all except to facilitate exchanges, but 
since, for this purpose, it is absolutely necessary, it is 
thought to be the proper province of the government to 
provide it and regulate the character and amount. 
Wealth in this shape, just like wealth in all shapes, rep- 
resents the product of labor. Land, at least the owner- 
ship of it, is the product of labor, even if the title be 
originally acquired by causing a crow to fly over it. So 
much, therefore, of the labor of the nation must be 
represented in that class of wealth which is most con- 
venient for facilitating exchanges. The multiplication 
of these facilities for exchanging human products is, 
however, the chief cause for the great contrasts in the 
ownership of those products, and why : because the 
greater the facilities for exchanges, that is for trade, be- 
tween men, the more frequent and the greater in mag- 
nitude will those exchanges become ; and since on 
every exchange or trade there is a profit to somebody, 
the faster the said trading can be done, the quicker the 
shrewd man will become rich. If men did not ex- 
change their products, then, aside from the gain from 
unearned increment, no man would, in an entire life, be- 
come richer than another save to the extent that he as 



PHRONOCRACY 235 

an individual could perform more physical labor, which 
would perhaps not be more to the strongest than twice 
or thrice the maximum of the weakest. Some writers 
therefore have proposed that the great facilitator — money 
— or the circulating medium, should be abolished. Its 
abolition would greatly retard the monstrous extremes 
in earthly possession ; but civilization demands exchanges, 
hence it must maintain the medium. Neither gold nor 
silver make any better money than iron or copper or tin, 
but they are better adapted to the purpose because they 
exist in nature in such limited quantities (or at least 
have done so) that a very small quantity — such as may 
be conveniently carried— represents considerable labor. 
Of silver, it is usually considered that one ounce of it 
would almost represent the labor of a man for one day, 
and that gold to the same amount would represent six- 
teen times as much labor, hence these can simply be put 
into convenient shape, and suitable sizes and weights of 
these shapes can be used as the circulating medium. If 
gold and silver were dug out of the ground in the con- 
venient shape that the government gives them in coinage, 
the latter could simply say these shall be the legal tender 
— the circulating medium — and would not be required to 
place on them the government stamp or obligation to 
give them value, yet they would go in any civilized land 
on account of the value of the metal they contain ; and 
so long as the supply is no greater than it has been, the 
original size would exchange for similar value in current 
productions, because the same amount of labor would 
have to be expended in securing them. If, however, the 
government could find no gold or silver, it would yet 
have to provide its people with a circulating medium. If 
it should select iron it would find that in amounts repre- 
senting, say, one day's labor, it would be too heavy and 



236 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

unwieldy for use, and the same objection would apply to 
most other metals \ consequently if it selected iron it 
would be obliged to coin it in convenient size and write 
on the face of it something like the following : " The 
government will pay for this the equivalent of a certain 
amount of labor," or rather one dollar or one thousand 
dollars. In this case iron money might be of one size, 
circulating not on account of the value of the particular 
piece itself, but because of the promise of a responsible 
government to pay that which is valuable for it, and as 
long as the world was satisfied that the said government 
could and would pay this value, so long would it go, and 
people would be justified in including it in their estates 
at the value of the " promise to pay." The governments 
of the world have not yet found any metals which, in 
quantities suitable for use, can circulate as coin on their 
own merits, except gold and silver, and since these are 
obtainable, iron and the like are of course altogether 
dispensed with. 

These baser metals could only circulate upon the faith 
of some good promise, and since that promise can be 
expressed much better on a small piece of paper than 
on a little coin of iron, and since the paper is more 
convenient to handle than a little coin of iron, paper is 
used whenever any government seeks to issue a promis- 
sory money. Paper, being more convenient than either 
gold or silver, is preferred even to these, and is in fact 
the circulating medium of the world, though of no value 
save as an evidence of the government's promise. If a 
government should have written on the face of a bill, 
" For this will be paid one day's labor, or ten days' 
labor," or some other definite and fixed value, that 
would make it go if it were thought the government 
could make good its promise, but since governments 



PHRONOCRACY 237 

cannot well deliver the value in this form, they usually 
say that the bill will be redeemed in one or the other of 
the metals which, in convenient quantities for circula- 
tion, represent in themselves the said amount of labor or 
value. The only question, then, to be considered is : 
Can the government procure, so as to have ready for all 
bills that may be presented for redemption, the amounts 
of these metals as nominated in the bond ? That is to say, 
are its resources such that it can secure it ? and if so, 
the bill is good for its face in that metal. When a gov- 
ernment issues the coin direct the coin should go on its 
own merit, but the possessor of it runs his own risk as 
to its fluctuations in value. The experience of the world 
has been that gold has fluctuated least, hence it has been 
considered the safest and the best, and consequently has 
been adopted as the metal out of which the circulating 
medium is made by the greatest commercial nations of 
the world. Gold, however, is subject to fluctuation in 
value — that is to say, there might be a vast mine of it 
discovered, or several large deposits might be found so 
accessible that only one half the labor that has hitherto 
been required to put it into marketable shape would be 
necessary. If but one such mine should be discovered, 
(or if several, if such there should be were found,) and 
the whole consolidated into one man's hands, he would 
receive the benefit of the discovery to the extent of all 
the labor that was saved. If, however, mines should 
become very numerous, competition would inevitably 
reduce the price. The likelihood, however, judging 
from centuries of experience, is that gold is not apt to 
fluctuate greatly, and hence is safe in the hands of the 
man who owns it, as a representation of that labor which 
any particular quantity of it represented when first ac- 
quired, save the necessary loss from attrition and wear. 



238 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

Silver is more liable to fluctuation, and hence is not as 
safe as gold. In the United States, in 1873, an ounce of 
silver was worth about $1.18 — one sixteenth the value of 
gold ; in 1878 it was worth about $1.10 ; in 1880 it was 
worth about $1.04, and in 1886 it was worth only about 84 
cents, on a loss since 1873, or in thirteen years, of 34 
cents, — nearly one third of its value in gold, and why? 
Principally if not wholly by reason of the fact that during 
said period it was found in larger quantities or in more 
accessible places, or because the facilities for putting it 
into marketable shape had increased such that it then 
required less labor to produce it, or because demand 
proportionate to supply was less, and not because of 
demonetization, save as this affected demand. Hence, 
any man who owned silver in 1873 and kept it till 1886 
would have suffered a net loss of about 33 per cent, of 
his fortune, just as might have been the case wtth any 
other commodity, and any government or individual that 
had issued in 1873 a promissory note to be paid in silver 
would have been the gainer to the same extent. Such a 
catastrophe having occurred to silver might also to gold, 
but less likely. 

It however illustrates that a government that obligates 
itself to pay its bonds or circulating currency in gold 
might be either the gainer or loser, and the holder the 
loser or gainer, as the case might be, so that it is in fact 
questionable, first, whether or not a government will be 
able to secure the precious metal, and if so whether or not 
it will be worth the same at the time of payment as when 
the obligation was incurred. Likewise are individuals 
who own gold subject to the same liability to fluctua- 
tion, but since as regards gold the changes have been 
and are likely ever to be small, but little risk is incurred 
by either. These conditions, however, lead to the ques- 



PHRONOCRACY 239 

tion : Might not the circulating medium of a country be 
simply the promise of the government on paper to pay 
certain value as thereon expressed based on the value of 
human labor ? 

This could certainly be done if it were practicable to 
receive, hold, and pay out the said labor, but since such 
is not practicable it is found necessary to receive that 
labor in some shape or form that is practicable (and gold 
and silver appears by experience to be the best of all 
commodities for the purpose), and to pay out that labor 
represented by the same commodities, leaving with the 
people the risk of all fluctuations in value. Imagine a 
great nation wholly without a circulating medium, and 
that no such substance as gold or silver existed, and no 
other metal suitable to the purpose of coinage — that is, 
none that would represent in a small, convenient shape 
the value of any considerable amount, say one day's 
labor — could be had. The labor of a common man might 
be worth a ton of iron ore, so that a circulating medium 
made of this metal in a highly refined state — that is, after 
much labor had been expended upon it — would have to 
be carried in a plate weighing about one hundred pounds, 
to represent intrinsically one common man's labor for a 
day, so that if carried in sizes convenient for use, the 
government would be obliged to put its promise to pay 
the product of labor for it in some other shape. 

If this promise would be necessary with iron, why use 
iron when the promise would be quite as good and 
binding if expressed on paper — a more convenient 
article for the purpose than iron ? It is evident, there- 
fore, that in the absence of gold and silver the circu- 
lating medium (since civilized men do not value shells 
and beads) would have to be altogether a promissory one 
backed up by a government to give the value of labor 



240 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

for it, and this promise would likely be made on paper. 
Suppose the people of that government owned between 
them, when aggregated, property of divers kinds worth 
the labor of a billion men for a day, or say in the Ameri- 
can standard one billion dollars, but had no circulating 
medium. In order to trade together to advantage they 
would have to secure a circulating medium, and how 
could they best secure it ? Experience had shown that 
the circulating medium need not be over a small per- 
centage of the total value of the property — even one or 
two per cent, may answer. Assuming that they deter- 
mined on one per cent, (which is rather smaller than the 
average), and that they could secure no precious metal 
but had all other things of value known to civilization. 
In such a state of affairs it is obvious that some kind of a 
medium predicated upon the faith in and resources of 
the government would have to be devised, which leads 
to the conclusion that any medium — that is, any money 
that does not represent in itself such value as will com- 
mand a certain amount of human labor — must be promis- 
sory or " fiat " money. 

If, therefore, a government could not secure the value 
of labor with which to make good its promissory money 
in the shape of gold or silver — that is, could not secure 
gold and silver, — it might be difficult to determine in what 
shape or upon what basis the medium would be redeemed. 
To legislate that a piece of paper with certain figures, 
letters, and characters printed upon it is a dollar is an 
arbitrary creation of wealth — making something out of 
nothing, a task not successfully performed since the 
creation of the Great Whole, if indeed ever, and it 
might not work. The thing must be redeemable in 
some sort of value. 

As long as everybody consented it would undoubtedly 



PHRONOCRACY 24I 

go just as gold and silver go, because of universal con- 
sent, and for that reason alone. If the desires, fancies, 
and preferences of the people for these metals should 
cease, then no man would be willing to give a day of his 
labor for an ounce of silver or for one sixteenth of an 
ounce of gold, even though the quantities of these metals 
remained as secure as before. The total taxable prop- 
erty of America in 1890 being sixty billion dollars, and 
the circulating medium being less than two billion dol- 
lars, the latter represented but little over one per cent. 
of the total wealth of the country, or say one dollar on 
the average out of every hundred dollars that the people 
owned. If the government in its own capacity had pos- 
sessed not one dollar of property, but simply had for its 
backing its right to tax the people or, rather, to compel 
them to yield up and give over certain parts of their 
estates, that power alone with unquestioned ability to 
enforce it would constitute resources of great magnitude 
and extent, certainly largely beyond one per cent, of the 
total property value. It was suggested, therefore, that 
the government abandon the policy of promising to 
redeem its obligations in precious metals. It has to 
obtain these metals by means of its right to force its 
people to yield up value which can be exchanged therefor, 
and this is its only means, assuming that there was no 
federal domain or other federal property that could be 
exchanged outright or hypothecated for these valuable 
metals ; so why pursue the intermediary step of taking 
value from the people and with that value securing 
these metals, and then when secured for the further con- 
venience of the public issuing paper money redeemable 
in same, but simply issue the paper money direct and 
pledge for its redemption the government's sovereignty, 

its right of eminent domain, its power to enforce its 
16 



2^2 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

people to yield up value in some shape. This, it was 
claimed, or something akin thereto, would have to be 
done if there were no precious metals to be had, or if 
the fancy and fondness of the people for these metals 
should for any reason cease ; and, furthermore, the identi- 
cal power and process that enables the government to 
secure these metals would operate with equal force in 
the maintenance of the paper money at par. 

Since, however, it has been for centuries possible to 
obtain these precious metals, and since there appears 
to be no reasonable possibility that either the supply or 
the fondness of the people for them will be materially 
diminished or in any way changed, this policy should be 
continued ; but as both gold and silver are in use, there 
arises much difference of opinion regarding the coinage 
of same. Some people want silver or paper redeemable 
in same made the only standard, others prefer gold only, 
and others still prefer both. Some, again, think that the 
more money there is in circulation, the better for the 
people. This class fail to consider that if the money 
has intrinsic value, or, if not, is backed by an unques- 
tioned support, it will be no cheaper and no easier to 
obtain whether there should be one or two or ten per 
cent, of the property value of the country represented 
in the circulating medium, and that if it has not intrin- 
sic value, or is not backed up by an unquestioned prop, 
that the greater the volume the less the value and 
consequently the purchasing power. Notwithstanding 
the fact that there is much silver produced in America, 
and many of its citizens favor silver as the medium 
and wish to have it unlimitedly coined, yet there is a 
large element that favor gold only, to which England 
and the greatest of commercial nations firmly adhere. 
Silver, it is by this class argued, is more cumbersome, 



PHRONOCRACY 243 

more liable to fluctuation, and less suited than gold on 
general principles for the standard of money. The sil- 
ver men claim that gold cannot be obtained in quantities 
sufficient for the requirements of the country (which 
proposition has never been fully proven), and that silver 
is a necessity. Aside from its less suitableness^ there is 
no good reason why silver alone should not be the 
standard, except for the fact that the nations whose 
force in the financial world exceed all others prefer 
gold. There is, however, good reason why both should 
not be recognized, because their relative values will 
change, they cannot be kept together any easier than 
wheat and oats. Some years wheat will be worth one 
dollar per bushel and oats thirty cents, and other years 
wheat eighty cents and oats forty cents, and so likewise 
with gold and silver. In 1873 an ounce of silver being 
worth about one hundred and eighteen cents and in 
18S6 being worth only about eighty-four cents, proves 
conclusively that the metals cannot be kept together. Sil- 
ver might be demonetized and remonetized, and yet the 
values would fluctuate and from causes entirely natural. 
Silver men may force the government to buy certain 
amounts of silver bullion per month (just because they 
have the votes to do it, not because there is any reason, 
justice, or benefit to the people in it), thus forcing the 
state to become a customer of certain private enterprises 
and interests to the extent of many millions of dollars. 
With equal reason might the government have been 
forced to buy a certain amount of iron, copper, cotton, 
or any other private article of production (which alone 
silver is) each month, thereby benefiting these interests, 
and, retroactively, as is the inevitable result, injuring 
others correspondingly. This class of legislation is dis- 
criminating and baneful, and, like protective tariffs, boun- 



244 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ties, subsidies, and similar interferences with private 
business, must ere long be stopped. It can be of no pos- 
sible benefit to the people (but considerable to silver 
producers) for the government to buy more silver than 
is required, and the people will become aware of that 
fact, and legislators will be elected who will put an end 
to the iniquity and firmly establish gold, and gold alone, 
as the standard of money. Trade wants only one yard- 
stick, especially does it not want two when they will 
constantly vary in length. Coins may be minted con- 
taining enough silver to make them intrinsically equal to 
gold, and before the milling is in the slightest degree 
worn, and sometimes before the face of the piece is 
tarnished, the market value of the . silver it contains 
might be less than gold, so that they could only be re- 
ceived at par, because of the fact that the government 
could make them so, or rather they are as much "fiat" 
dollars in principle as an irredeemable paper bill. Ere 
long the difference may become so great that the thing 
may become ridiculous, and people in making their 
trades will specify the kind of coin they will take, or 
rather the particular yard-stick with which they will 
have their cloth measured, which will ultimately force 
the adoption of gold, which is the least fluctuating, the 
most desirable, the most generally accepted, and the best. 
Silver should be coined only in small denominations for 
change, and should be a tender for small amounts, but 
no man should be forced to take any considerable 
amount contrary to or against his will. Paper redeemable 
in gold only should circulate almost exclusively, and the 
government would have no difficulty in securing all the 
gold it wanted, and it would require proportionately to 
the outstanding circulation a very small percentum. 
No more bills should be introduced and passed forcing 



PHRONOCRACY 245 

the government to patronize individual miners, and the 
effectual suppression of this class of discriminating legis- 
lation is about the first thing that the people, who have 
long suffered from its effects, are called upon or will 
find it necessary to do. The government should main- 
tain a circulating medium redeemable in gold coin only 
to such an amount per capita as Congress thinks advisa- 
ble for the business of the people, and that medium will 
be good the world over. In determining the volume of 
money, nothing should be taken into consideration save 
the question, What does the trade of the country require 
for its proper facilitation ? All else is irrelevant and in- 
admissible. The idea that schemes of inflation, looking 
either to cheap paper or cheap silver, will benefit the 
people is not only shortsighted and barren, but indi- 
cates ignorance as to the proper function of money. 
There can be little doubt as to the supply of gold being 
sufficient, but if not, the scarcity would apply to the 
world as well as to America, and the world will provide 
a substitute, and even in such an event there exists no 
fear lest the United States would be fully able to sup- 
ply, instead of gold for the redemption of any promises, 
that adequate value that they would have been able to 
give to secure the gold if obtainable. There should, 
therefore, be but one yard-stick— gold, or paper redeema- 
ble in gold. A circulating medium to trade is like oil to 
an engine. It could run without it, but runs better with 
it. Too much oil, or a poor quality of it, simply runs 
off the slides and journals and is wasted, and just so with 
money. Therefore let it be sufficient only in quantity, 
the best in quality, and absolutely invariable. 

Silver should be sold, as any other merchandise, for 
what it is worth, without any discriminating and unjust 
(if not unlawful) legislative stimulus. 



246 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

The demonetization of silver in America in 1873 
doubtless tended to widen the breach between the two 
metals, either by the depreciation of silver, caused by a 
curtailment of the demand, or by the appreciation of 
gold caused by an increased demand, but certain it is 
that by said act of demonetization nobody was injured 
except an owner of silver. The claim put forth by own- 
ers of silver mines, that said act caused the financial 
panic of that year, or that in subsequent years the relative 
increase of the wheat supply to Great Britain by India 
was likewise attributable thereto, which caused a corre- 
sponding decline in the demand for American wheat, 
cannot be sustained. America had an unquestioned 
right to demonetize silver, and in so doing not only did 
not violate the slightest faith, but, on the contrary, vindi- 
cated her national honor. Bonds and other obligations 
payable in coin should, when due, be paid in that coin 
which is equal in value to that expected by the buyer at 
the date of the obligation, otherwise, to the extent of the 
depreciation, there is virtual repudiation, which no gov- 
ernment can afford to perform as to its own or render 
lawful as to private obligations. 

Forcing silver on the government can only result in 
enabling its owners to secure a dollar at a depreciated 
price (which hope and desire alone prompts the move- 
ment), or in reducing all dollars to that depreciated 
price. The first would be governmental favoritism and 
rank discrimination, and the last governmental dishonor 
or downright disgrace. 

The government was under no obligation not to de- 
monetize silver, and if in the progress of the world's 
commerce and by the chief commercial nations of the 
world gold is preferred, why should America not like- 
wise choose gold and gold only ? Who, by the deprecia- 



PHRONOCRACY 247 

tion of silver, or, to put it differently, by the increased 
price of other things in silver, is injured except the 
owner of silver, and what obligations could the govern- 
ment have been under to pursue a policy calculated to 
enhance the price of silver rather than of any other 
commodity, which alone and nothing more silver is and 
should always be so long as gold is obtainable, as it 
doubtless ever will be in sufficient quantity for coinage ? 
If silver had been a self-sustaining commodity the price 
of silver would not have decreased, notwithstanding de- 
monetization, and notwithstanding remonetization and 
unlimited coinage, unless an ounce of silver will com- 
mand more labor than it does, the price of silver will 
not increase unless the latter is sustained artificially 
equal to gold by the government "fiat," which is wrong. 

Where can be found reasonable support to the propo- 
sition that silver would be worth permanently any more 
if coined in little pieces called dollars (except the cost 
of minting, etc., etc.) than when in bars of equal fine- 
ness, unless by reason of some sort of governmental 
"fiat," v/hich is unjust ? 

Who can successfully show that it is to the interest of 
any one, save an owner or producer of silver, that the 
price of that commodity should be increased by any 
cause, much less by governmental favoritism ? It is clear 
to any reasonable man that the people at large would be 
in no sense benefited if by unlimited coinage all the 
silver that could be produced should be made into dol- 
lars, for just as certainly as those dollars circulated on 
their own merit, just that certainly would they be worth 
no more than bars plus the cost of minting, and if so, 
the price of all the requirements of life in this silver 
would increase. If made more valuable than bars, it 
would be by reason of some governmental protection 



248 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

that is not just. The silver producers themselves would 
therefore get no great benefit unless at the expense of 
the people or by the protection of the government. To 
put more silver into the dollar would be the only honest 
remedy, and then its size would be variable as to the 
labor, to the wants of life, or to the gold it would buy ; 
hence justice to all, simplicity, certainty, and reliability 
demand but one yard-stick, and efforts to make two are 
prompted more in the interests of mine-owners than for 
the good of the masses of the people. Cheap money is 
like poor soil ; it is difficult to get a living if you own a 
world of it. Farmers' alliances and tradesmen generally 
should remember that a sow's ear is not a silk purse, and 
legislation will never make it such. 

Everything should be on a gold basis. He who pos- 
sesses silver in bars should be as well off as he who pos- 
sesses it in coin ; it should not be a legal tender, so that 
there would be no special reason for putting it into the 
shape of little round pieces. Any man who cared to 
exchange a horse or anything else for silver could, of 
course, do so, and he who had mines that were so rich 
and accessible that he could produce it for less than it 
would sell for in the market will be a fortunate man, just 
as he who has iron, copper, tin, or lead mines that are 
similarly located. Silver has its value — sometimes higher 
and sometimes lower — just as other metals. Civilization 
has, however, about ceased to call it "precious," be- 
cause a man will not give a day's labor for a whole ounce 
of it. It has, however, its commercial uses in the arts, in 
trade, and the like. Rich men ornament their fire-places, 
furniture, and door-knobs with it ; sometimes watch- 
cases are made of it, but ladies do not care to wear it as 
jewelry. Expectant benedicts will not insult their lady 
loves by presenting engagement rings made of it ; yet it 



PHRONOCRACY 249 

has its uses. The government should buy what it wants 
for subsidiary coinage ; and when England and the com- 
mercial world recognize it as the best metal for money — 
that is, the metal least liable to fluctuations and of such 
value as to make coins minted of it the most desirable 
size and generally the most acceptable — of course it may 
then answer the purpose of money. But so on this basis 
would copper or iron ; but if silver or copper or iron, 
then not gold — why two yard-sticks that must fluctuate 
in value ? Silver has become so cheap — that is, a man's 
labor will, with the appliances for mining it, produce so 
much — that a piece of it worth twenty dollars is a bur- 
then to the wearer, and it becomes a question as to how 
much cheaper it may become, until the same objections 
that apply to copper or iron could be directed against it 
with equal force and effect. 

The government should recognize both convenience 
and value in the national banking system, and permit it 
to be continued. 

When any association of gentlemen wish to engage in 
the banking business, if they take to the federal treasury 
an amount of gold or its equivalent in any acceptable 
shape equal to the circulating medium they desired, 
the government should issue to them a two-per-cent. 
bond running thirty or forty years, or if they secured 
these bonds from any outside owner all the same. By 
depositing these bonds as security the government should 
permit the bank to issue circulating notes to the full face 
value of the bonds, on which the banking institution 
should be obliged to pay to the government one per cent, 
annually, which would leave to the institution a gain of 
one per cent., representing the interest on the bonds. 
These banks should be, of course, subjected to govern- 



250 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ment supervision and control, and would stand as an 
adjunct or a means, as it were, that the government 
would adopt to better regulate the supply of the circu- 
lating medium. 

Providing and maintaining a uniform and stable cir- 
culating medium should be one of the government's 
chiefest functions acknowledged by all, and this system 
of banking rather localizes even that important duty. 
The bonds deposited as security (security bonds) should 
not be subjected to the cumulative rate, being the prop- 
erty — assets — of the bank (a corporation), but the bank 
stock representing these and such other assets as it 
might own, would be, of course, cumulatively taxed in 
the hands of the individual owners, just as the bonds 
would have been in the hands of an individual owner. 
The government, be it ever in mind, would receive its 
tax exclusively from individuals, excepting this special 
one-per-cent. circulation tax that applied to banks only 
whilst they used the circulating medium that the govern- 
ment authorized them to issue. The government should 
conclude that the one per cent, the bank would gain in 
interest on its security bonds, notwithstanding the fact 
that the institution would be authorized to issue a me- 
dium on which while circulating it could draw interest, 
was no more than a fair inducement for the bank to enter 
into business, and since it would be open to all, w r ould 
not be discriminating. The system insures a circulating 
medium not only equally stable but more flexible j that 
is, when different localities of the great continent want 
a circulating medium there would likely spring up a 
national bank and issue new currency, which would be 
better than taking that part of the medium that it would 
require from the general fund already in the various 
channels of trade. In other words, it is a means of 
getting nearer to the wants of trade than the government 



PHRONOCRACY 25 1 

could well do unless by some similar system, and it 
would avoid, to a great extent, legislation in Congress on 
the supply of the circulating medium per capita. Further- 
more, if there should be required an increase of say ten or 
twenty per cent, in the circulating medium, it could be 
accomplished through the bank at a net cost of but one 
per cent, to the government, whereas if it had been 
obliged to secure the gold in the market it would doubtless 
have had to give bonds therefor, which would bear at 
least two per cent., or procure the value with which to 
secure said circulation by an increase of tax on the people. 
If it should issue an increased amount of paper notes, 
it must have an increased amount of gold with which to 
redeem the same on presentation, which would be the 
same thing in effect ; consequently, all things consid- 
ered, the national banking system is worth what it costs 
and should be continued. Its circulation is secured by 
bonds, and when surrendered up the bonds would be 
returned to the banking institution. This does not alter 
the feature of a circulating medium being redeemable in 
gold, for the bonds are and should always be paya- 
ble in gold ; and it gives the government a chance to 
maintain a greater circulating medium with less ready 
gold at hand. If gold is demanded of the bank, it should 
be required to pay it for any of its own notes, and for 
this purpose should be required to keep a certain balance 
on hand. Any bank failing in this particular should 
have its charter cancelled, notes called in, on receipt of 
which the bonds would be returned, and the business of 
the association would be ended. All systems of national 
banking must of course undergo changes and modifica- 
tions to meet the exigencies of the times, just as any 
other business. Likewise, the quantity of money must 
be subject to the variable conditions and expansions of 
trade, but its quality should never be unpaired. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Immigration and foreign proprietorship — Sentiment against immigra- 
tion — Workingmen favor free trade, but oppose immigration — 
Error of the belief — Self-sustaining men a benefit — Care of poor 
families in infancy — No danger from over-population — If so, 
destroy the beasts first — Man-labor and brute-labor — Increased 
population adds to labor demand — Foreign purchaser a benefit 
to all — Opposing legislation reduces property values — Ireland an 
illustration. 

The practical operation of the cumulative rate as ap- 
plied to home property having been explained, and also 
the result of the qualification-for-suffrage system in its 
beneficent effects on the character of representatives 
and the purification and perfection of the balloting sys- 
tem having been illustrated, it may be well to look for a 
moment into the incalculable benefits that would result, 
and the increased conservatism that would be displayed 
by men who were chosen to public place by men, rather 
than blatherskites chosen by bribery and corruption. 

Though America, by reason of her wondrous resources, 
her varied clime, and, by no means the least, her free 
institutions, has prospered so unprecedentedly in popula- 
tion, in wealth, and in power, notwithstanding the bane- 
ful and centralizing effects of some of her despicable 
policies, there has arisen quite a sentiment against 
foreign immigration. 

This is but reasonable on the part of the hitherto 
ignorant workingmen, who at last begin to see that that 

252 



PHRONOCRACY 



253 



system of " protection " which discriminated against 
labor's products and yet invited the laborer himself is, 
to say the least, rather a second-handed benefit, if, 
indeed, it is not an actual injury. 

To maintain that a man who performed his day's work 
three thousand miles away in England, Germany, or in 
France or Belgium, was a greater interference— hence 
the object against which the protectionists should build 
their walls— than the thousands of the same class who 
were seeking positions at our very doors, does not look 
quite as forcible to wage-earners as it once did. It 
therefore appeared to the workmen as though it was 
simply a question how many would come over till com- 
petition would be quite as fierce, and hence wages as 
cheap, as in the least favored and most oppressed of 
any nation in Europe, and the thing to do was to keep 
out the people rather than their products—/.*., stop immi- 
gration. That heretofore they had been skinning the 
cat from the wrong end ; they had been protecting the 
country against cheap goods, which they all wanted 
(save their employers), and filling it to overflowing with 
cheap labor, which none of them wanted (save their 
employers). 

In fact, the more enlightened began to bump their heads 
together and ask themselves if they had not all along 
been goats ? The facts are that they had been goats. If 
there is anything to be gained by any system of protec- 
tion it would certainly be in that which would protect the 
laborers directly, by avoiding competition with foreign 
or any other class of labor, and not in that which deprived 
them of the best and cheapest sources from which to 
obtain their supplies. If one hundred men were wanted 
to plow a certain field, they could certainly obtain a bet- 
ter rate per day if there were no competitive bystanders 



254 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ready to take the jobs, than could they if the price of 
the potatoes which were to be grown in that field were 
artificially enhanced by some discriminating legislation, 
and a hundred other laborers were standing by ready to 
take the job. The increased price of the potatoes would 
inure to their employer and against themselves, whether 
the competitive bystanders were ready or not, and to a 
greater and more alarming extent would they be dis- 
criminated against and harmed if, by legislation, the 
employer could make them pay the increased price for 
the potatoes, pocketing the profit himself, and at the 
same time be in a position to make available the cheap 
competitive and by-standing laborers. Better a thousand 
times, and from any view of the case, had the price of 
the potatoes remained normal — the result of open com- 
petition, — so that they could buy them cheap, and keep 
away the competitive by-standing laborer, so they could 
sell their labor high. Thus the masses began to think 
that curtailment of immigration was the remedy for their 
ills. Keep out the laborers who compete with us and 
let in the products that compete with our employers, and 
things will even up better. That does look more reason- 
able, and soon there may not be found a laboring man 
in the country but such as favors opening the ports to 
cheap products, but not to cheap labor. The employers 
have said well : " Cheap products mean cheaper wages." 
"Yes," said the employe, "cheap labor means cheap 
wages also, and we have failed to see many cases where 
you would pay us $1.50 per day when you could get as 
good a man for less ; the latter is a direct blow at us, 
and the former is indirect. We have been trying pro- 
tection against cheap goods, and you have got rich and 
we become poor ; we now want to try protection against 
cheap labor, and see how that will work." Therefore 



PHRONOCRACY 255 

there has been a great outcry against immigration. 
America for Americans, cheap goods but no cheap men ; 
bring in your goods but keep out the men. These and 
similar arguments may gain currency and receive sup- 
port before the adoption of the cumulative scale. Con- 
gress will be appealed to to restrict immigration not 
only as to character (which restriction is now made) but 
as to numbers (which restriction should never be made). 
The annual immigration is between five and six hundred 
thousand, and Congress may be asked unconditionally 
to reduce it to ten thousand per month. These impor- 
tunities may cause long debates in Congress and much 
discussion throughout the country. Whilst nearly every 
other country in the civilized world is using its utmost 
endeavors to prevent emigration, here America stands 
opposing immigration — a very unusual and anomalous 
position. The question may be much discussed and 
thoroughly sifted. It may be asked of those who oppose 
foreign immigration, foreign money, foreign goods, in 
fact everything foreign that will make, and has made, 
the country rich, if the prevention of immigration to the 
extent of four to five hundred thousand able-bodied men 
who desire to come is good, why would not the enforced 
emigration of about the same number of able-bodied men 
who are now in America be better ? Which argument, 
reduced to its natural sequence, would mean, at an early 
day, the depopulation of the country. 

If in scarcity there is plenty; if in vacuity there is 
material ; if in weakness there is strength ; if Thersites 
is Hercules ; if a singed cat is a Bengal tiger, or a puling 
puppet a roaring lion ; if, in fact, a fool possesses wisdom, 
then such policies would be wholesome — not otherwise. 

It appears reasonable enough that the laboring man, 
failing to be benefited by protection, in fact, contin- 



256 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

uously, though for a long time unconsciously, being 
worsted by it, should rush towards the proposition of 
curtailment of immigration — on the surface the most 
reasonable remedy — for the disproportionate condition 
of affairs, of which they complain. Reflecting minds, 
however, at once observe that a self-sustaining man is a 
benefit rather than a curse to society ; that, if a country 
with a population of 640 to the square mile, as is 
Belgium, or one to the acre, could maintain itself at 
all, certainly, increased population could not be op- 
pressing America — on the average naturally richer — 
with a population of less than twenty to the square 
mile, or but one to every thirty-two acres. 

The agitation of these questions in America is not by 
reason of the greater oppression (which really, though 
becoming the same, is as yet less than that elsewhere), 
but on account of her free institutions. Here the popu- 
lace can, and with some hope, discuss, proclaim, and 
expound ; but elsewhere they cannot, with much hope. 
In America the grievances of the entire world are dis- 
cussed, and, naturally, a greater number of remedies for 
wrongs are proposed. 

To argue that the increase of population by immigra- 
tion (provided that immigration is of a self-sustaining 
character) is hurtful, is to argue against the increase of 
population in the world at large in the natural manner, 
and whilst it has to be admitted that many families 
in moderate estate are too prolific for comfort, or too 
numerous to enable them to provide their offspring with 
the best of social conditions and opportunities, yet it is 
by no means to be advocated that the biblical injunction 
" be fruitful and multiply " should be summarily inter- 
dicted. The inability to properly provide for a number 
of little children during their infancy is one thing, and 



PHRONOCRACV 257 

the detriment to society supposed to be consequent upon 
immigration quite another. For the former there ap- 
pears to be no feasible remedy. If as the result of the 
marriage of two healthy people there should be born 
into the world ten or a dozen children in as many or in 
a fewer number of years (as frequently happens), and 
then if by accident the father, hitherto a dutiful sire and 
husband and the main support of the family, should be 
taken off, leaving an indigent widow with the burden of 
the family, the condition would be of course not the 
most desirable, if, in fact, it is not actually deplorable, 
but how can it be remedied ? Society has and does, to 
a very reasonable extent — perhaps quite as liberally as 
would neither encourage idleness nor invite malingery, — 
provide homes for widows and orphans. 

Philanthropists likewise often have and yet do leave 
much of their estates for benevolent purposes, and it yet 
remains for some philosopher to suggest a better system. 
Nothing save the plan of making all mothers pensioners 
on the government could reach it effectually, and that 
would appear to disrupt the domestic relationship, and, 
though possibly for no good cause, be prejudicial to 
society. 

At least it appears to shock the moral conscience, but 
possibly only because it is in conflict with long-estab- 
lished custom. Rather it appears to be one of the 
greater of the unanswered problems, just how far can 
charity or public care and protection extend without 
inflicting injury ? Too much is taken advantage of, for 
thousands would prefer the care of the poorhouse or 
hospital — some, in fact, incarceration in jail — than the 
support their own energies would secure for them. It 
appears as though the infant and the growing child 
should have adequate support, even proper training and 
17 



258 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

education, to fit it for the duties and cares of life, when 
it shall have arrived at the age when it should be self- 
sustaining. There is scarce a domestic animal of the 
lowest type, even unto a dog, that is not thus cared for, 
not alone in infancy but in maturity as well. 

It does look as though the young of the human species 
should be as well cared for in infancy as the colt, the 
pup, or the calf, — not only as well, but as much better as 
its estate when maturity is reached is superior to that of 
these animals ; yet there are thousands — yea, millions — 
of children in all thickly populated cities in Europe, 
America, in Asia — in fact, everywhere — that seldom 
have enough to eat and never enough to wear. 

But, then, many children are born into the world, 
maimed, crippled, imbecile, and decrepit ; those of the 
rich are subjected to these misfortunes, whilst not to 
such an extent, yet likewise, as are those of the poor. 

Therefore, since in keeping with what most people are 
disposed to term the will of Divine Providence, but what 
others consider rather the result of nature's active agen- 
cies (be it the one or the other, or both), it is manifestly 
true that disabilities and misfortune have existed (with 
both rich and poor, though oftener with the latter) from 
the very beginning ; and since they cannot be absolutely 
prevented nor controlled, what is left save to make the 
burthen as light as possible, by providing for the extreme, 
just as is necessary in poverty — the other apparently 
essential result or condition of society which cannot be 
absolutely prevented or controlled. 

Consequently, mothers must be made pensioners on 
the state till their children have reached the self-sustain- 
ing age (which will relieve the poverty in the rearing of 
children,, mitigate disease in same, though not absolutely 
avoid it), or some — yea, many — children must grow up 



PHRONOCRACY 259 

in a worse relative, if not worse actual, state than the 
colt, the calf, the dog, or the hog. After man has 
grown to be a self-sustaining individual, or after he has 
reached the age say of fifteen years, when he ought to 
be self-sustaining, it is no use to argue that the world is 
too small, that time has not yet arrived, and it is not apt 
soon to arrive, if ever. 

Those who are affrighted by the Malthusian theory 
may dispel their fears for the time. If the resources of 
the world are ever to be too severely taxed, that time will 
not be within the lives of our grandchildren, and they will 
doubtless be producing all kinds of vegetable and other 
food products out of earth, water, and heat in a few 
hours, as they are now produced from the seed out of the 
same essential substances in from four to six months. 
But if it were actually at hand during the lives of the 
present generation, the condition does not exist in 
America, therefore it is useless to argue that increased 
population here is in any sense injurious (rather is it a 
blessing) ; and if increased population is not injurious, 
then self-sustaining immigration is not injurious. But, it 
is urged, let us have the increase native-born instead of 
foreign-born. To this it may be replied that a good, 
stout, and able-bodied foreigner is worth just as much to 
the country as his productions would exceed his con- 
sumption — so why exclude him ? If the country is not 
suffering from over-population, caused either by natural 
increase or by immigration, what object would there be 
in curtailing either ? 

If a horse adds to the wealth of the country, so like- 
wise does a man, if he be self-sustaining, to a greater 
degree ; and if the world is being over-taxed with its in- 
creasing population (especially if America, with a popu- 
lation of sixty million in 1890, when,. if then populated 



26o POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

as was Belgium, it would have contained six hundred 
million, is so), better begin the depopulation by killing 
off the horses, for they eat much that man can consume, 
and do much work that man could perform. In Belgium 
six hundred and forty people to the square mile live, and 
that too in a country a very large part of which was once 
sand dunes and deserts ; how, therefore, could population 
have the slightest effect in America, with twenty people 
to the square mile, every acre of which, with less labor 
and care than reclaimed the Belgian sand dunes, could 
be made as fertile as a garden ? But, since to admit a 
ridiculous proposition always results in a ridiculous con- 
clusion, which usually shows up best the fallacy of an 
argument, we will accept it as settled that America is 
over-populated, and that immigration and then ere long 
fecundation must both be stopped. When attempting 
to carry the scheme practically into execution most 
supporters of the faith will be willing to shut out immi- 
gration, but before interdicting fecundation many will 
think it would be best to kill off a few thousand horses 
that were consuming the world's products and eating up 
its roots, herbs, and grasses ; but why do this when the 
people can, if they choose, eat up the horses ? 

Thus does the admission of premises, to the vulgar 
apparently reasonable and sound, invariably lead to the 
same result — an absurd and ridiculous conclusion. It 
requires brains to build a boat, and brains to set a boat 
afloat ; so also does it require brains to run a govern- 
ment, and brains (more than all men together possess) to 
properly regulate society and equitably (not equally) to 
distribute the blessings of the earth. 

Consequently, great benefit will result in relegating the 
fools to the rear by qualified suffrage, for they belong 
nowhere else. Those who are guided by hyperbole and 



PHRONOCRACY 26 1 

nonsense miss their calling when they try to reform the 
state, just as an ass would lose his beauty and but little 
increase his ferocity when he donned the lion's skin. 
Hence it is that attempts at reform amount to nothing — 
the masses have not the brains ; they are rash and incon- 
siderate — moved by the incendiary utterances of some 
loquacious fool who knows nothing about the practical 
workings or the probable effect of any proposition ; in 
fact, the best and wisest know but little and can prophesy 
not at all. If ever a wise and conservative leader appears, 
trivial and petty dissensions arise of no consequence or 
effect on the main issue, and he is either shorn of his 
utility or disgusted with the follies of his ignorant 
coadjutors ; and it will not be until that conservative re- 
form is proposed which looks for its following not from 
the ignorant, the vicious, and the depraved, but from 
among men who know the benefit of direct, consolidated, 
and prudent action, that things will begin to move. 

This class of men can see through a grindstone when 
the hole is sufficiently large. These men can see that all 
talk regarding the decrease of population, either by anti- 
immigration or by the more natural and effectual method, 
anti-fecundation, is stupid nonsense. They know that 
every able-bodied and self-sustaining man is of value to 
the state ; that he not only has labor to sell, but he has 
wants to supply, so that he not only occupies the position 
of supplying labor, but of creating a demand for it as well. 
He must have food and clothes and boots and shoes, and 
to the extent that he requires them causes just that much 
demand for labor which, to say the least, offsets the sup- 
ply he furnishes with his strong muscles and rugged 
frame. There was scarce as much per capita demand for 
labor when the population of America was six million as 
when it is sixty million people, and there was certainly 



262 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

not as much actual or aggregate demand. The reduction 
of population curtails demand as well as supply, and in- 
creased population enlarges demand as well as supply, 
so that the conditions in either case are relatively about 
as before. There are times when there is a greater sup- 
ply of workmen for a particular class of work than there 
is work for them to perform, but this may — in fact, will — 
happen in a population of six million just as well as in 
sixty million. There are times when there is over-pro- 
duction, just as there are seasons when there is too much 
rain, and over-production, just as over or excess of rain, 
can as well and is quite as likely to happen when there 
are six million as when there are sixty million. The 
only possible difference between that condition which 
applies to six million and that which applies to sixty mil- 
lion lies in the fact that population creates wealth, and 
without a regulating balance-wheel that wealth will con- 
centrate, because the extremes can be and are greater in 
a population of sixty million than of six million people ; 
just as in a great desert like Sahara, where there is much 
sand, the variable and shifting winds can amass greater 
heaps in one spot, leaving others almost bare, whereas in 
a small desert, where there is little sand, the difference is 
scarcely noticeable. It takes a big ocean to turn up a 
big wave, so a big community to cause greater contrasts 
in condition. Apply the proper remedy (Phronocracy), 
and the contrast will be no greater in sixty million than 
in six million, but the nation will be ten times richer, 
more powerful, and secure. 

Prior to the curtailment of suffrage, however, the con- 
servative people will utter many a lingering sigh. When, 
oh, when will Congress quit legislating ; when will the 
fool-killer actually be killed ? When will we be per- 
mitted to run our business on business principles, and 



PHRONOCRACY 263 

be relieved of the blatherskites who thwart our opera- 
tions ; when will the fool who thinks it is a curse to the 
country for a foreigner to invest his money in it, be sat 
■ down upon and elected to stay at home ? When suffrage 
is purified — it will be purified when curtailed, — not before. 
Before then the vulgar representative will be in clover ; 
but he will elicit only laughter, contempt, and scorn when 
confronted by the wise. He now tells the people (espe- 
cially the Irish) that some English subject owns land in 
a certain State, and the American people are actually 
paying money rent for the use of same, which appears to 
be horrible. What a pity the benighted heathen can- 
not comprehend that the American who is paying the 
one, ten, or one hundred thousand for the land, is in all 
probability gaining two, twenty, or two hundred thousand 
for the use of same, or at least a profit satisfactory to 
himself ; if not so, then the American tenant is as great 
a fool as his would-be protector, and should have been 
tried at once for lunacy — a better remedy than discrimi- 
nating legislation. 

The Englishman can't force an American to pay any 
fixed price for land, and it is a fair presumption that if 
an American voluntarily pay a certain price he does so 
to his own profit. The sophistical politician has an- 
noyed the people with his nonsense for a time too long 
to endure, but in the long run he will be suppressed. 
Finally it will be an act of almost as much reproach as 
treason to, attempt to incite the populace to rash and 
absurd doings. No public man or aspirant for public 
trust should ever think of seeking popularity by frenzied 
railings against the conservative institutions of the state. 
Men of this kind will simply be called blatherskites — 
Bombastes Furiosos — for full are they of sound and fury 
that signifieth nothing. Verily are their arguments as 



264 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

two grains of wheat in two bushels of chaff. One can 
seek all day ere he finds them, and when he has them 
they were not worthy of the search. One of the very 
greatest drawbacks to progress is the attempted legisla- 
tion against foreign investment. Public land can only 
be taken up by a citizen, and of right so because he pays 
his citizenship for his title, and that is the government's 
only price for that which is exclusively its own ; but 
when the individual has acquired his title he should be 
permitted to sell it, as anything else he owns, to any man 
or set of men who would pay a satisfactory price. If he 
fritters it away for naught he is a fool, as would be the 
man who would pay rent for glory and to please the 
foreign land-owner. Legislation is not the remedy for 
these fools, and all efforts in that direction tend directly 
to depress the price of land — and why ? Because a good 
customer is taken away ! What matters it if John Jones, 
who happens to have his mail addressed London, Eng- 
land, owns ten thousand acres of land in every State of 
the Union, provided he pays his tax ? He cannot carry 
the land away, and the money he pays for it remains in 
this country, and to his rent he is entitled, and it usually 
happens that the tenant secures a better deal from a 
foreigner than from a home landlord, who keeps better 
apace with the rapidly advancing tendencies of all 
American properties than the foreigner. 

Much wrong is done to foreign investors by unjust 
decrees of the courts, and as such discrimination is 
usually followed by unanswerable results, vast sums of 
foreign gold (principally British) have been diverted from 
America, where they would have preferred to have 
placed it, and been taken to remoter parts of the world. 
The Irish element in American politics has been very 
hurtful to English investment ; true, the money comes 



PHRONOCRACY 265 

in considerable lots notwithstanding all, but more by- 
many millions of pounds would gladly come if only 
fairly treated. It is this very class that excites the 
opposition to foreign ownership in America, or, rather, 
their prejudice against England has almost ruined their 
own island, and now they seek to ruin America too. It 
is admitted by very many — in fact, some say by a 
majority — of the resident property-holding Irishmen, 
that the continuous agitation of the land question 
and the legislation that has been passed in the futile 
endeavor to satisfy the complainants, has actually 
caused more harm to the island than half the property is 
worth. 

Man, as an individual, either has the natural right to 
possess property or he has not. If he has (as the con- 
servative people of the world admit, and which few, if 
any, deny), then he is entitled to the possible enjoyment 
of the usufruct of that property, and the state should 
not only not interfere with said title, but should protect 
the individual in its retention. It is not an argument 
against the right to hold and enjoy property to say that 
the owner once acquired it cheap, provided that owner- 
ship was secured by the highest and most equitable 
means recognized at the time, any more than it would 
be good logic to maintain that, if it was acquired by the 
payment of an exorbitant price, the title would be secure 
if not obtained in conformity with the highest recognized 
authority at the time. It cannot be maintained, either, 
that the sacrifice of excessive individual estates, as is 
vouchsafed by the cumulative rate, is of itself absolutely 
just, but this is a penalty of increased severity imposed 
upon the excessively wealthy individual for the good 
and well-being of society, just as the original sacrifice of 
a part of his individual rights to the state was made for 



266 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

the good of society. It is not claimed for the system 
that it is absolutely just to the individual, but it is 
frankly admitted that it is discriminating and socialistic, 
but it is supported on the ground that the discrimination 
is directed against the man who can best afford it, and 
not against those, as under all other systems, who can 
least afford it, and the socialistic feature of it is no 
actual harm, even to those whom it most oppresses. It 
cannot therefore be charged against, the advocates of 
cumulative taxation that they are inconsistent, that they 
oppose legislation that forces a landlord to practically 
sacrifice his land, and yet favor a system that accomplishes 
the same thing in fact. There are wide distinctions 
and obvious differences between the two, even more 
than would be casually recognized by those who possess 
the ability to consider and the candor to confess. The 
one strikes directly at the right of property ownership in 
the abstract, the other at the same in the concrete ; or, 
rather, the first recognizes that property has no rights 
that the community is bound to respect, and the latter 
that it has (till it has been amassed to an unreasonable, 
unwieldy, and useless extent) more rights even than has 
hitherto been granted to it. Furthermore, the adoption 
by the country of some such general system will relieve 
it of the necessity of considering the passage of special 
acts which are discriminating and oppressive in their 
effects, and which are usually the ebullitions for popu- 
larity of some blatherskite in legislative assemblies. 
Such representatives, however, are the inevitable product 
of the present debased suffrage system, and are very 
hurtful to wise and prudent legislation. Nevertheless, 
they are " duly chosen " as a result of the prejudice and 
ignorance of the "great unwashed," and are called " hon- 
orable" when fool would be far more appropriate. What 



PHRONOCRACY 2&J 

signifies "honor" thus unworthily worn, thus prostituted, 
disgraced, defiled ? 

The mere word 's a slave, 
Debauch'd on every tomb ; on every grave, 
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb, 
Where dust and damn d oblivion is the tomb 
Of honored bones indeed. " 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Desirableness and result of territorial annexation — Some opposition 
to extending the boundaries — Other land thought by some to be 
useless — Value to the countries themselves greater than to the 
States — Final preference of all for one flag over all — Detail of 
the discussion regarding annexation — Tropical lands needed by 
the States — Better acquire land suitable to tropical products than 
to produce them by taxation and bounties — North America 
adapted to one government over the whole continent — Likewise 
tend to make customs, language, and people alike — Local home- 
rule vital — Possibility of division in North America if local rule 
is molested. 

The United States of America having, after the acqui- 
sition of the Louisiana country, the Mexican conquest of 
1846 and 1847, and the purchase of Alaska, acquired 
about three and one half million square miles of terri- 
tory, and the entire amount, excepting Alaska, being 
joined and conterminous from ocean to ocean, and, as if 
chosen by design, within those parallels of latitude that 
are most desirable, and beyond which, either north or 
south, there is but little that is of great value, it appears 
as though the talk of extension of territory is the wildest 
bluster, and prompted solely by the desire for glory. 
Why should Canada be annexed to the American Union ? 
it is asked. The States can produce anything that can 
be grown in Canada save icebergs, and they possess 
little value save beauty, and that only as a sunset or an 
aurora shows them to the observer to advantage. Why, 
likewise, should Mexico and Central America and Cuba 

c68 



PHRONOCRACY 269 

be annexed to the American Union ? That land, it is 
claimed, is too far south to be of any great value. The 
lakes on the north and the Rio Grande River on the 
south are the natural boundaries, it is claimed, and 
beyond these limitations either way there is nothing, 
some people claim, over which the Stars and Stripes 
could float and feel within the sphere of their accus- 
tomed conditions. This banner now waves, it is said, 
over about the only part of North America that is fit to 
be called the "land of the free and the home of the 
brave," so why extend it farther ? Likewise is it claimed 
that the present limitations, well populated and well 
governed, are worth more and will be greater than the 
entire continent besides, for the reason that the remain- 
der is either too far north or too far south to be of any 
profit, but must, on the contrary, be a constant source of 
trouble, annoyance, and expense ; that neither Canada, 
Mexico, nor Central America are more than self-sustain- 
ing, and, by reason of the natural conditions that afflict 
them, they never can become great, in the national sense 
of the word. Two thirds of Canada is ice-bound more 
than half the year, and consequently is practically unin- 
habitable. Mexico, likewise, is an elevated plateau in 
the centre, on which nothing will grow, a practical 
desert, as compared with the lands in the States, save 
along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mex- 
ico, where the land, though fertile, is subjected to an 
inhospitable clime, fatal to foreigners, scarce innocuous 
to natives, and if so, to say the least, so enervating and 
depressing that progress to any great extent, as the 
result of individual enterprise, is practically impossible. 
It is also urged against Mexico that her population is 
composed of a different race of people, speaking a differ- 
ent language, with different wants, customs, desires, and 



270 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

inclinations ; that they would not affiliate with or become 
sympathetic with the people, and that the cost of admin- 
istering justice and preserving domestic tranquillity would 
be greater than all the value that could be found in the 
country. It is claimed also that both Mexico and Can- 
ada are burdened with debt, which would have to be 
provided for, and that to make either of these countries 
a part of the great Union of States, in the benefits of 
which, co equally with any, they would share and partici- 
pate, would be unjust, and that we would get practically 
in return, therefore, nothing save debt, disturbance, and 
discontent. 

It is claimed, on the other hand, that both of these 
countries could be governed, if annexed to the States, 
at less than half the cost that is necessary for either 
independently ; that the maintenance of a complete 
system of administration, legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive — armies, navies, and internal and coast defences, 
would be but little more for one hundred million than 
for eighty million people, and practically the same for 
one hundred and fifty million as for one hundred and 
twenty million, so that the present expenditure by these 
separate powers for the maintenance and perpetuity of 
these civic and military institutions is no criterion as to 
the expense that need be incurred, if made a part 
of the Union, and that the only question to be deter- 
mined is the mutual desirableness of the association. 
Both, of course, cherish national patriotism and pride, a 
fondness for their own flag and their national institutions, 
that no American cares to alter or disturb. All objec- 
tions as to the remoteness of the country are entirely 
abandoned, for the boundary of Canada is scarce a 
stone's throw from the northern boundary of the States, 
and the city of Mexico, on the other extremity, can be 



PHRONOCRACY 2J\ 

reached from Washington City in less time than is re- 
quired to go from New York to San Francisco. Like- 
wise is any desire to take either of these countries by 
force absolutely suppressed. There arises, however, 
throughout, the entire continent what is termed the 
"American sentiment" — that is, a pride in the greatness 
and glory of this quarter of the whole world. Whether 
he be Canadian or Mexican, he is yet an American, and 
if each section could retain its local control, why not, for 
the good and the pride of all, have the whole together 
on matters exclusively and essentially national ? If 
seven tenths of the population and nine tenths the 
wealth of this quarter of the world can not only be 
governed, but prosper as no country in the entire world 
had ever prospered, under one form and system of 
government, why could not the other small fraction 
participate equally in that prosperity and glory, not only 
to the great advantage of their local institutions (which 
would not only be retained to themselves, but solidified 
and strengthened), but to the pride of each in the gran- 
deur of — not the States, not Mexico, not Central America, 
nor Canada — but of America from ocean to ocean, from 
the Isthmus to the Pole, destined by the forces of 
nature to be, not only one, but the greatest nation of 
all ? Since Canadians, Mexicans, and Central Americans 
would participate in the general government precisely to 
the same proportionate extent as any of the existing States 
in the lower House, and exactly to the same extent State 
for State in the Senate, and a resident of either of their 
sections might become President, the same interest and 
pride could be taken in the affairs of the country that is 
manifested in any other section. The Mexican govern- 
ment, though more stable now, has been for years un- 
certain and despotic, and the educated property-holding 



272 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

people, who are progressive in their instincts, and who 
are not parties in the spoils of government, yearn for 
such a condition of affairs as annexation would bring. 
They have seen its effects in California and the West, and 
can imagine no cause that would prevent a similar con- 
dition in Mexico. 

Their lands, they are certain, would bring a very 
greatly enhanced price ; the better classes can already 
speak English and are capable of affiliation. The whole 
country, abandoning pauper suffrage, would remove the 
objection heretofore urged against the Mexican peone 
population, and there would remain no reason why 
America should not be America nationally, especially 
when there could be preserved a system, the value and 
efficiency of which had been tested, whereby localities 
could nevertheless control their domestic affairs. Pres- 
ent non-ofnce-holding, or non-political spoils Mexicans 
would be eager to aspire for governorships of their 
States, under such conditions as exist in the northern 
sisterhood ; for senators in the upper house and for 
representatives in the lower house of the American 
Congress. They would want to participate in what 
would then be an American nation — in fact, as much 
theirs in the ratio of numbers as any other man's ; and, 
above all, they would want to effectually settle the 
supremacy of the sword, under which alone they have so 
long lived and suffered. 

Deputations of prominent Mexicans may yet visit 
Washington City and consult with the authorities on 
some plan of annexation. . To this, of course, the Mexi- 
can government would at first be very hostile, so it 
might have to be done secretly, but would afterwards be 
more open. The authorities at Washington could be 
assured, as well as Americans on the border, that if any 



PHRONOCRACY 273 

aid or countenance would be given them, they could 
maintain a successful result ; that the brain and property 
of Mexico wanted to be annexed — knowing as they would 
its inestimable benefits, — but they dare not speak or act 
in any concerted direction without American sympathy. 
All know that there would be no disposition in the States 
to take Mexico by force, notwithstanding the earnest, 
though suppressed, desire of many of her very best 
citizens. 

There is no question, of course, as to the ability of ten 
or twenty men to conquer one man, or that a thousand 
dollars would buy more and larger guns than one dollar ; 
but conquest would not be the thing. Many Americans 
have already invested their capital and are making their 
homes in Mexico ; large mining and smelting establish- 
ments have been built ; immense tracts of land irrigated 
and reclaimed and naturally these residents are sympa- 
thetic with that class of Mexicans who desire annexation 
(which will be the better class, almost to a man). Quite 
as enthusiastic for Mexican annexation to America as 
even the American residents of the country, would 
doubtless be the Englishmen who have settled there in 
charge of British investments. England cares but little 
even for Canada, and of course nothing for Mexico, save 
to trade with the people ; and since it looks probable 
that the whole of North America, if joined, would accept 
the free-trade policy, which is impossible with either 
Canada, Mexico, or Central America if separate ; and 
since the entire eight millions of square miles of country 
would then be accessible to British enterprise, it would 
be quite natural that England should at least urge no 
objection to the amalgamation of all American countries, 
which would in fact be to her interest and gain. Thus 

the Americans and Britishers, together with the Mexican 

18 



2/4 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

annexationists, which latter class would include practi- 
cally all of the substantial citizens of the country who 
were not a part of or in sympathy with the dominant 
political power, could make common cause for an- 
nexation. Finally, the feeling will wax so warm that 
meetings will be held for the discussion of the question 
right in the city of Mexico. Allusion will be made to 
the likelihood of Canadian annexation and the benefi- 
cent results consequent thereon, which are now ap- 
parent ; the talk of "manifest destiny" and the like is 
now current and widespread, and the sentiment could 
move rapidly on until at last the hostile factions of the 
dominant Mexican party would find it necessary to 
institute measures of suppression, and might send mes- 
sages of complaint to the administration at Washington. 
The government of the United States would take no 
part in the movement, which, if encouraged, would move 
over Mexico as naturally as would a prairie fire fanned 
by autumnal winds and fed upon the sun-dried grasses 
of her extensive plains. Discussion would become lively 
in the States, the controversy doubtless drifting on to 
the general proposition as to whether or not annexation 
of territory is to the interest of the States. Whilst there 
is apparently no particular reason for or special good 
to be subserved by the annexation of Canada — save per- 
haps the settlement of the seal and fisheries question, 
the control of the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and 
kindred controversies, none of which are of very great 
importance, — yet territorial domain extending to the 
north pole would be placed under one government, and 
with that once accomplished the desire to complete the 
job and extend the same flag to the Isthmus, would 
become the desire of almost all residents of the conti- 
nent. Annexation does not signify the subjugation of 



PHRONOCRACY 275 

Canada or Mexico by the United States, but their 
voluntary preference to become a part of one good 
government for the good of all. 

This would relieve much of the sting which under 
other circumstances would pierce the patriotic breasts. 
As to Mexico, there are a great many reasons upon the 
part of its own and the people of the North why it 
should become a part. The States, as now constituted, 
practically end at latitude 30 north — this being about 
the last parallel running through the whole, — an'd there 
are very many tropical plants, vegetables, and fruits that 
cannot be produced so far from the equator. 

Mexico and Central America are all south of this, and 
can, and if properly cultivated would, produce every 
tropical plant that civilization needs. The States can- 
not grow sugar to supply one tenth of the population, 
nor, in fact, any tropical product excepting oranges and 
lemons in Florida and California, and these are not 
essentially tropical, nor is the climate fully suited to their 
best development. The States have imported sugar 
to an extent that has produced under the useless tariff 
a revenue of over fifty million dollars annually, and 
under a proper system of cultivation, all that could be 
grown in Mexico, together with fruits and spices of an 
infinite quantity and variety, also coffee, tea, and, in fact, 
everything not grown in the States, that any part of the 
world could supply. On the other hand, Mexico is 
dependent on the States or other outside sources tor 
all sorts of manufactured articles and implements for 
agriculture — cotton, woollens, and textile fabrics, — in 
fact, for almost everything not produced directly 
from the earth. What applies to Mexico is equally true 
as to Central America, and in both the land suitable for 
mineral developments is practically untouched. Mexico 



2j6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

needs the markets of the States for her silver-bearing 
lead ores, and notwithstanding the fact that the States 
need the ores, they are practically excluded by the pro- 
hibitory tariff. The progressive, non-official Mexicans 
see these conditions, and Americans likewise see great 
increased opportunity for selling machinery, and imple- 
ments, and merchandise in general. In fact, in deciding 
the question as to the desirableness of annexation, it 
must be considered as any other business proposition — to 
wit : is it worth what it will cost to the parties most in- 
terested ? That country is of course the most nationally 
independent that can produce within the limits of its own 
jurisdiction all the commodities required for civilized 
life, but to attempt to accomplish this by legislation is 
utterly impracticable as to many, and usually too costly 
as to any that cannot be produced from nature's unaided 
storehouses. Oranges cannot be made to grow practi- 
cally in Greenland's icy mountains, nor even in the 
vicinity of New York, and if orange culture is desirable 
it is decidedly the most profitable, reasonable, and com- 
mon-sense policy to secure, if possible, land on which 
they will luxuriate and thrive by reason of its inherent 
adaptability, than to seek to accomplish the purpose by 
legislation. In the former case it shuts off a natural 
source of supply and forces in an unnatural one, whereas 
by the latter it is simply a matter of transportation. In 
thirty years the States have to 1890 averaged fully forty 
million per year in taxation on sugar, making one billion 
two hundred million that her people have paid for that 
commodity in excess of what it could have been secured 
for, if land of sufficient quantity in a clime that was suit- 
able had been procured by the nation. Likewise so with 
coffee and all tropical productions, and this amount is 
equal to the then value of all land and property south of 



PHRONOCRACV 277 

the Rio Grande. Without suitable territory there must 
exist a state of utter dependence on foreign lands for all 
exogenous productions, or there must be instituted a 
system of encouragement or support by protection that 
is invariably discriminating and expensive, if not alto- 
gether impracticable. 

Hence the great necessity of a thoroughly equipped 
nation possessing territory, if such can be obtained, 
that will produce, naturally, all the commodities essen- 
tial to the needs of the human being in a civilized 
state. 

Mexico offers this supply to more than a sufficient ex- 
tent, if the land therein along the coast of the Gulf as 
well as the Pacific Ocean is properly cared for and culti- 
vated. That these lands should be made available is the 
great wish of the progressive Mexicans, who are almost 
always English-speaking Mexicans. 

The two countries are becoming amalgamated by 
other ties than natural and commercial interest. The 
Mexicans are usually dark-complexioned, and, on the 
theory of contrast, admired the light skin and blue 
eyes of the more northern women, which results in many 
unions in marriage that are fruitful of good results to 
both. Likewise do the blue-eyed northern men become 
enamoured of the voluptuous Mexican ladies, and ere 
long there will exist a bond of domestic interest and 
affinity that will be stronger than commercial ties. When 
the belief is current, both in Canada and Mexico, that 
annexation is not sought by the States as a matter of 
subjugation or conquest, and, in fact, not cared for by 
the States at all, save for such motives as might as well 
prompt both Mexico and Canada — to wit : the naturali- 
zation of North America, in which all are interested, 
and should cherish just pride,— it will not be opposed. 



278 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

The States are not only the most populous and richest of 
all the countries in North America, but their institutions 
are the most progressive, and by all thought to be the 
most desirable for the government of the great continent 
of America, especially when to their past practically work- 
ing system is now proposed to be added an improvement 
in which all conservative minds sympathized — to wit : 
increased security by the curtailment of suffrage, and in- 
creased opportunity by the extirpation of individual monopoly. 
By all odds, therefore, if the systems of any one of the 
nations are to be chosen for all, to say nothing about the 
great superiority of the States in population, wealth, for- 
eign credit, and the like, that of the American Union is 
preferable. 

These considerations will effectually annihilate local 
antipathy, so that about the only opponents that will re- 
main will be those who feast and fatten off the Mexican 
public crib — those who can, by the force of arms, per- 
petuate their own succession and that of their friends 
forever. The States have been, prior to 1890, sending 
into Mexico only about ten million dollars' worth of goods 
annually, when the total value of importations by that 
country has been in the neighborhood of forty millions 
annually, and is rapidly increasing. 

Mexico had been prevented from sending to the States 
millions of tons of low-grade ore, and millions of dollars' 
worth of tropical products and valuable woods, which 
trade could not only be carried on to a largely increased 
extent, but the lands from which these commodities 
came would be more than quadrupled in value, as has 
been the case in California. 

By retaining local government for their states, neither 
Canada, Mexico, nor Central America would yield much 
power that it would be desirable to retain ; in fact, 



PHRONOCRACY 279 

no more than the existing States of the Union, which 
are not only richer but many times more extensive 
than the whole of the latter or of the habitable por- 
tion of the former. Americans will be quick to grasp 
the idea that the suffrage qualification would remove 
the incubus of the peone vote of Mexico, as it will 
do in the Southern States regarding the equally ob- 
jectionable and equally unworthy negro vote, as well 
as clear or rather wrest political power from the slums 
of the large cities hitherto in the hands of the off- 
scourings of the earth, and place it in the hands of the 
conservative middle classes in the cities and the property- 
holding residents of the country, all of whom know 
something about government, and possess something to 
be affected by it. These considerations remove the 
objection which has been for a long time fatal to the 
discussion of the annexation idea, and the commercial 
feature will make the thing very popular. Instead of 
selling ten million dollars into Mexico, there would be a 
certainty of selling fifty, even on the existing basis of 
population, and the possibilities of that country in min- 
erals, mines, valuable woods, and all tropical products 
are simply beyond computation. Of course, in the event 
of annexation, every one understands that individual 
property rights of all kinds would not only be preserved 
inviolate, but confirmed by the strongest possible power — 
to wit, the fiat of the property-holding people of a nation 
governing one quarter of the entire globe, and that 
quarter in climate and natural resources capable of sus- 
taining ten times the population of all. It would extend, 
not like Russia and Siberia, around the frozen regions of 
the ice-bound north, but through all climes to perpetual 
summer, and that, too, with uniform breadth, and popu- 
lated by people suitable to their localities. Not like 



28o POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

England — a small gem in the Atlantic — governing most 
of her domain over countless miles of trackless ocean, 
but in one compact body, co-extensive, and contermi- 
nous, a world complete within itself, which neither the 
United States (with all her resources for lack of tropical 
country), nor Canada, nor Mexico, nor Central America 
can ever be alone. Now that people have advanced suffi- 
ciently in civilization and intelligence to know that the 
best possible means of making a nation great is to grant 
to a central power only such concerns as are national in 
their character, and leave to the localities all domestic 
control, the question of distance, and territorial extent 
does not figure in the calculation, especially in America, 
where from the Capitol the extremes could be reached in 
a week, though practically covering a fourth of the world. 
Civilized men want the products of the earth ; they 
require furs of the seal and the white bear, and likewise 
do they want the banana, the mango, and the olive. 
They travel from the boreal blasts of the ice-bound north 
to the balmy zephyrs of the sunlit south. They will go 
bounding over the billowy plain with antelope motion, 
and climb the highest peak at early dawn, where the 
crags and rocks stand out vividly, and are clothed with 
glittering spangles of sunlit dew. They prefer to possess 
all these varieties under their own flag, and not only do 
personal pride and national glory prompt, but commerce 
and complete independence demand, that " from land of 
ice to land of sun the railway lines' through cars shall run." 
Both Mexico and Canada, as well as Central America, 
could be divided into states, the population of which 
could be made equal to the average of existing American 
States, which would be fair, just, and reasonable, and 
thus said populations being small, would add altogether, 
perhaps, not more than ten States to the existing galaxy 



PHRONOCRACY 28 I 

of sovereign stars. To Cuba, arguments for annexation 
apply with even greater force than to Mexico and Cen- 
tral America, and it is even more strongly desired by her 
property-holding citizens than by that class in the 
former ; but Cuba cannot revolt ; Spain will not volun- 
tarily abdicate, and the States are neither ready to pur- 
chase nor to conquer. Ten additional States would add 
only twenty United States Senators, making one hundred 
and eight altogether, by no means an unwieldy number, 
and the remaining territories will add but few. Still 
better than all this, the suffrage-qualification feature of 
the Phronocratic creed would materially reduce the 
membership of the House of Representatives, now too 
unwieldy for either expedition in legislation or the proper 
consideration thereof. Representation could be based 
on about fifteen thousand, and the membership would 
not likely exceed two hundred on the present popula- 
tion, and its increase in quality' would more than com- 
pensate for its decrease in quantity. The prevailing 
predilection to resist innovations has, perhaps, prevented 
many an error that might have been baneful, but on the 
contrary it has estopped many an improvement that 
would have bettered the conditions of men. " Let well 
enough alone," is a good maxim, but if never altered, the 
cave or a hole in the ground might to this day have been 
the habitations of the noblest animals of them all. The 
scoffer at suggestions for alteration, even though in his 
opinion they are not improvements, would be a great 
enemy to civilization and progress were it not for the 
fact that he is usually a fool and his utterances vapid. 
"An eagle soaring in all his height might be hooted at 
by a mouthing owl," but on he would soar, like *■ heaven's 
cherubim horsed upon the sightless couriers of the air," 
with head uplifted, and wings outspread, till he bathed 



282 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

his plumage in the silvery vapors of a sunlit cloud, and 
the owl might hoot till darkness — his element — shrouded 
the world in gloom. Thus with the progressive men and 
the scoffers : 

" Poison, be the latter's drink ! 
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste ! 
Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees ! 
Their chiefest prospect, murdering basilisks ! 
Their softest touch, as smart as lizard's stings ! 
Their music frightful, as the serpents' hiss ; 
And boding screech-owls make the concert full of 
All the foul terrors in dark-seated Hell." 

Next unworthy to the scoffers are those who are too 
weak and timid for independent political action. Many 
a man doth hate the King, but preferreth rather 

" To bend the pregnant hinges of the knee 
That thrift may follow fawning," 

than to boldly assert his views, and act on his convic- 
tions. Hence it is that the multitudes must go together 
almost at one great surge, else individuals will wait to 
see how the cat may jump. There existed scarce a man 
in public life in 1890, who ever conceived or suggested 
anything, and few who did suggest anything were ever 
elected. Most who were chosen were the result of a 
combination between the contending factions of greater 
or better men, who could and did conceive something, or 
they were as logs floated in on the tide or down the 
brooks in a freshet. 

Apathy as to old matters, and cowardice as to new, 
keeps real issues out, and puts money in to settle a 
political controversy. Party organization and party 
discipline are both good things, but individual indepen- 



PHRONOCRACY 283 

dence of action, so as to put the party in the van of living 
issues, is the necessity of the day. The trite and oft 
repeated adage that " he serves his party best who 
serves his country best," should be ridiculed. A man 
becomes a member of a party, that is, a Republican or a 
Democrat, or a Phronocratic supporter of cumulative 
taxation, suffrage qualification, anti-centralization, and 
American federation, because he thinks that the princi- 
ples advanced by these organizations are best suited to 
the greatest number of his countrymen, and, such being 
the case, how could he serve his country better than to 
serve his party faithfully and unconditionally ; for with- 
out organization there is bound to be discord, and where 
there is discord, there is no progress. Party organiza- 
tion, party fealty, and party discipline, are the means to 
a successful end, and when the Phronocratic avalanche 
shall once begin to move, for the very reason that its 
platform is conservative and unmistakable, there is no 
organization of men that will be so loyal, so united, and 
so true, as those who stand for cumulative taxation, 
suffrage qualification, American federation, and anti- 
centralization, with its typical insignia, — a four-leafed 
clover, and the significant name " Phronocracy." 

It is universally admitted, that control of the govern- 
ment of North America as an entirety, from the Isthmus 
to the Arctic, under the improved conditions relative to 
suffrage, transportation, and the general administration 
of civil affairs, would be easier than was that of the 
original thirteen States, (void, as they were of facilities 
for transportation, etc., etc.,) or of the amount of country 
owned at any subsequent date. There is absolutely 
nothing in the way, or that would in the slightest degree 
prevent, save the abrogation of that all-essential princi- 
ple — local self-government. This annulled and no tenth 



284 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

part of North America as it is, would be content in 
a Union, but with it fully recognized, all prefer fraternity 
and indissolubility, concord and sympathy — u union and 
liberty, nozv and forever, one and inseparable." By reason 
of the negro (forgotten be the day that his black face and 
kinky hair was ever imported from the land of his sires ! ) 
one rebellion has occurred in America, and even in 1890, 
thirty years thereafter, fellow-feeling and good-will be- 
tween the sections are still hampered by reason of that 
same negro. The North wishes his vote, and the South 
cannot and will not stand his rule, hence it appears that, 
unless the suffrage-qualification movement is adopted 
(which would forever settle all feeling), there might again 
be another struggle on account of that same negro. If 
such should ever come to pass, the result would probably 
be that from the Ohio and Potomac Rivers, west to the 
Pacific, and by the annexation of Mexico, Cuba, and 
Central America, south to the Isthmus, there would be 
established the " Southern Republic of North A?nerica," 
and from these rivers north to the Arctic Sea, the 
" Northern Republic of North America." In the former, 
curtailed suffrage, on account of the ever present negro, 
and of its general sound policy, together with restricted 
individual accumulations, and with absolute free trade 
with every nation of the earth ; and in the latter, Plutoc- 
racy to excess, and Democracy to excess, or communistic 
tendencies, with universal suffrage, and a protected au- 
tocracy with universal monopoly. However, the farmers 
and conservative city residents, both north and south, 
should resist and prevent the tendency towards interfer- 
ence with home rule, destroy force bills forever, and erect 
on the ruins of all, the precepts of Phronocracy, which 
will be the salvation of all. It is not claimed for the 
propositions advanced that they are original or new. 



PHRONOCRACY 285 

The material substances of nature doubtless always 
existed and ever will exist ; so human thoughts, more 
or less forcible, have existed in the minds of men since 
men, as such, were evoluted from inanimate substance 
and crude material by cosmic energy. Thoughts doubt- 
less have existed in incipient degree in all animated 
things, and possibly in stones and trees as well as in 
every grade of men. Granite has existed in the ada- 
mantine hills for countless millions of ages, and the 
matter of which it is composed is doubtless coeval with 
the universal whole. The question is not have we discov- 
ered the quarry, but have we carved the statue ? So from 
the chaos of human thought it is not the question, have 
we originated the myriads of ideas that are scattered 
broadcast in limitless confusion and labyrinthian hetero- 
geneity, but have we winnowed the wheat from the chaff and 
arranged the valuable material into systems from which 
practical results can be obtained ? Nature arranges few 
of its substances in right lines, and makes few of its 
surfaces smooth and ornamental. Its roads are rough, 
its paths tortuous, and its ways are winding. In native 
forests, trees are seldom arranged in exact geometrical 
figures ; and, just so, crude ideas are seldom grouped in 
practical propositions. A few integers are susceptible of 
many combinations, most all of which are rude, fantastical 
forms. The question is, does Phronocracy combine any 
of these so as to make an ensemble that will result in 
greater good to a greater number than existing outra- 
geous and useless inequalities, and if not what 'will ' ? If 
so, is it practicable, is it just, and if not what is ? 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Governments in general — Advance in civilization liberalizes all gov- 
ernments — Absolute monarchy and limited monarchy — A de- 
mocracy and a republic defined — America a republic, not a 
democracy — Strict construction of federal power essential — ■ 
Republics presuppose intelligence — Excessive democracy is akin 
to socialism — No federal aid or supervision of schools — Opposi- 
tion to all kinds of paternalism — Frequent elections continued 
save as to judges — Local government essential in all progressive 
states and for all enlightened people. 

Because an absolute monarchy or a despotism is 
almost universally acknowledged among civilized people 
to be anti-progressive and inherently wrong, it does not 
follow that the radically and diametrically opposite sys- 
tem (universal suffrage) is absolutely progressive and 
inherently right. It is possible to err on the one side 
just the same as on the other. Doubtless among the 
wild beasts that roam in the forests nothing save cages 
or chains will guarantee any restraint, and that for 
insubordination it may be that death would be the only 
proper penalty. So among the higher order — that is, 
human brutes — a similar exercise of power would per- 
haps alone be available or in any way meet the require- 
ments of the case. 

It is evident, however, that as human beings cease to 
be brutes, that kind of government which was suitable 
for brutes ceases to be the thing for the human beings, 
and the greater divergence from the animal state, the 

286 



PHRONOCRACY 287 

greater must it be in the governmental state ; hence, 
eventually, if things mundane continue to progress as they 
have for the last fifty centuries, all absolute monarchies 
or despotisms must go, as, in the most enlightened por- 
tions of the earth, they have already gone. From a 
despotism, in which all power and absolute unrestraint 
is vested in the king, there is really no tenable position 
that can be assumed except such as places power practi- 
cally with the people, but upon the people there should 
be placed a wholesome restraint. The limited mon- 
archy represents a government in which the prerogatives 
of the king are proscribed. From the limited monarchy 
to a limited republic or a Phronocracy the step is very 
short ; in fact, the abolition of the image of sovereignty, 
and the creation in its stead of an actual entity, made so, 
for a certain time by the consent of the people, repre- 
sents about the entire items of difference. Of popular 
forms of government there are two, with some distinc- 
tions, but little if any difference : 

First — A democracy, derived from two Greek words, 
Sr//Ao; P signifying " the people," and KpdroS, " strength," 
or sovereignty en masse. 

Second — A republic, derived from two Latin words 
res, signifying "a thing" or "an affair," and publico,, 
"public." 

Democracy really means " a government by the people ; 
a form of government in which the supreme power is in 
the hands of the people, and directly exercised by them ; 
hence, more usually, a form of government in which the 
power resides ultimately in the whole people, who con- 
duct it by a system of representation and delegation of 
powers ; a constitutional and representative govern- 
ment ; a republic." 

A republic signifies " a state in which the sovereign 



288 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

power is exercised by representatives elected by the 
people ; a commonwealth ; a democracy. 

Hence, in the abstract, a republic is a democracy, and 
a democracy a republic. In the concrete, however, 
there may be considered to be a slight difference, to 
wit : in a well-constituted republic, as the United States 
of America, the government is administered by repre- 
sentatives chosen by the people, and in a democracy 
by the people in a body, as in some of the ancient states 
of Greece. The distinction, therefore, if there be any, 
is that a republic is one step further from the people 
than a democracy, yet the two terms are almost synony- 
mous and interchangeable. Since, however, govern- 
ments of great magnitude cannot be administered by 
the people in a body, and must be operated by repre- 
sentatives thereof, chosen in an agreed manner, and 
clothed with certain powers, the term "republic" is 
closer to that condition which exists in America, and 
which must exist in all large congregations of people 
possessing popular governmental forms, than is the term 
"democracy." In America, the party called Republican 
is supposed to represent that portion of the population 
that tends towards centralization — that is, the party that 
favors a liberal construction of the powers conferred by 
the federal Constitution on Congress, and is inclined 
rather to enlarge the scope of federal jurisdiction ; and 
the party called Democratic tends rather toward a strict 
construction of the powers conferred upon Congress by 
the Constitution, and opposes any enlargement of the 
scope of the central power. Of the two positions the 
latter is by far the more reasonable, since it is but right, 
if there be a constitution, that it be construed with 
absolute strictness, for if liberal, then how liberally, and 
where is the limit ? If certain powers are delegated, 



PHRONOCRACY 289 

then beyond these powers the federal government 
should not go, until the said powers are enlarged in the 
manner prescribed, or until additional powers are 
granted in the form set forth and agreed to by the par- 
ties to the compact. 

There are, however, some general clauses in the Con- 
stitution, as " for the purpose of carrying these pro- 
visions into effect," and the like, that give fair ground 
for the belief, that it was intended that in times of 
emergency the strict construction might be varied, or, 
rather, that Congress might do incidental things that 
would practically extend the scope of the specific pow- 
ers. It comes, therefore, to a question of individual 
preference. Those who think the interests of the whole 
would be best subserved by increasing the scope of 
federal jurisdiction, call themselves Republicans ; and 
those who think that the powers of the general govern- 
ment should be strictly confined, call themselves Demo- 
crats. 

The tendency of the times being towards that principle 
which prefers "that nothing shall be done by the general 
government which the local authorities are competent to 
do, and nothing by any governmental power that indi- 
viduals can do for themselves," it must soon be almost 
universally accepted, in fact tacitly agreed, that Con- 
gress shall do absolutely nothing save such things as are 
expressly set forth, and everything that may be done 
under general clauses should be made obligatory, if con- 
tested, only by the vote of two thirds of the congressional 
delegations and three fourths the State legislatures, 
which would leave no longer any room for discussion as 
to the proper limitations of the delegated powers of the 
federal Congress. Most of the political differences after 

the adoption of cumulative taxation and suffrage qualifi- 

19 



29O POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

cation will doubtless rest on the question of a further 
increase of the latter as the population becomes dense. 
However, since it is not the amount of property or the 
scope of his education that is to entitle a man to suffrage, 
but simply a requirement that to participate in same he 
must attain a certain standard of excellence, it will doubtless 
be unnecessary to increase the rate. The very existence 
of a republic pre-supposes intelligence, since for the 
bestial and ignorant the despotism is the only proper 
form, consequently strenuous effort should never be 
abated until intelligence and property to proper limita- 
tions are made the conditions of republican citizenship 
everywhere. The distinction between a democracy and 
a republic is so small that it is scarcely appreciable, and 
Democrats, as they now exist, when really the only vital 
question is free trade or protection, have in their ranks 
many men who favor even a more concentrated gov- 
ernmental system than is advocated by the Republicans, 
and the Republicans, a protective organization, have in 
their ranks many free-trade sympathizers. There are, 
therefore, no absolute lines of demarcation. Republicans 
hate the name of Democrat, and a Democrat hates the 
name of Republican. He who has previously affiliated 
with either will not change his political name to the 
other, even though in principles he recognizes in the 
organization of his opponents that which would be most 
conducive to the interests of himself and his country. 
Hence it is that those who advocate cumulative taxation, 
free trade, suffrage qualification, and the other progres- 
sive tenets of political organizations are obliged to adopt 
a name differing from either of the old organizations. 
The control of excessive individual accumulations, free 
trade, and increased opportunity to the individuals of 
the masses is democratic enough for many Democrats, 



PHRONOCRACY 29I 

and the curtailment of suffrage and the general concen- 
tration of power to within the qualified members of 
society is centralizing enough for many Republicans, but 
the position is neither all Democratic nor all Republican, 
neither Plutocratic, nor Democratic, nor Aristocratic, nor 
Autocratic, nor Gynecocratic, but, resting on judgment, 
prudence, and sense, is " Phronocratic." 

It involves a representative electoral system, which is 
the proper signification of the word republic, but it 
curtails the right of participation therein to those only 
who can show certain excellence or fitness for the privi- 
lege, as is required for participation in all other channels 
of civilized life. The advocates of these special views, 
therefore, may sometimes be called "Conservatives" and 
sometimes " Phronocrats," either being appropriate. 
The difficulty of securing independent political action 
will for a long time be discouraging, but it is known that 
there already exists such an undercurrent of sympathy 
that it must one day burst out with astounding strength 
and fury. Party fealty is to be prized, yet parties void 
of principles or of any direct object are useless both to 
their members and the state, hence the lack of necessity 
for that close adherence to name that is expected of an 
advocate of any fixed purpose or principle. 

The proposed system of government is not, as stated, 
properly described by either of the names applied to the 
two great existing parties. It is, of course, in all respects 
a republic, but not, however, in the sense that the term 
has been used, but one in which the representatives are 
to be chosen not by the people absolute and uncon- 
ditional, but by the people within certain limitations. It 
cannot be considered a " Plutocracy," because, whilst 
the wealth of the country had its share of consideration 
and representation, yet against the government by 



2Q2 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

wealthy classes alone, which the term really signifies, 
there is a vigorous and effectual restraint in the cumula- 
tive tax. It is to that degree socialistic that it looks 
toward a surrender to the state for community purposes 
of a certain portion of excessive individual property, yet 
it is not essentially a socialistic position. It is, in fact, a 
compromise between excessive democracy or socialism 
and excessive republicanism or plutocracy, in the strict 
sense of these terms, yet, nevertheless, essentially a re- 
publican form. The people as a whole will not rule as 
is especially signified by the term " Democracy," so that 
the term " Phronocracy," signifying a "limited repub- 
lic," appears to cover the case better than anything 'else. 
Its policy expressly supports the republican or represen- 
tative system, but proposes to " limit " same to within 
certain lines, representing moderate wealth and adequate 
knowledge. Many Democrats will refrain from support- 
ing such a party's candidates simply because the word 
Phronocracy is to be the name of the organization, but 
Democrats certainly favor republicanism, for what is a 
republic but the very form under which the Democrats 
live ? A government that is a republic must be republi- 
can, and the fact is that the United States of America is 
a Republic and not a Democracy, which latter signifies a 
government by the people as a whole, which could not 
exist in a great country, and never existed, essentially, 
save in some of the ancient states of Greece. The word 
republic signifies more properly that representative sys- 
tem in force in America, and to " limit " the selection of 
that representation certainly would constitute a " limited 
republic," or Phronocracy a " limited " electoral and 
representative system. 

The right to be a representative would, of course, be 
" limited " to within the limited class of electors ; both 



PHRONOCRACY 293 

are expected to reach a certain standard of excellence, 
and he who should vote should be capable to represent. 

Under the present system, such is not the case, and 
monstrous mal-administration ofttimes results simply 
from downright incapacity. The Democrats of the 
South will not be alarmed by the term Phronocracy, 
nor, if any prefer it, by the equally applicable term 
" Conservative," which latter some Northern thin skins 
but thick skulls may think is a term signifying English 
oppression towards Ireland. The South has no enmity 
towards England ; it does not sympathize in the Amer- 
ican-Irish agitation, knowing it to be both presumptuous 
and unreasonable ; the white element is for free trade 
almost to a man — at least such are the sympathies of 
the vast majority ; and the English position on that 
subject is thought by the South to be reasonable, proper, 
and in keeping with the advanced ideas of commerce 
and trade. The South sells England its cotton, and is 
quite willing that the United States government shall per- 
mit England to enable the people of the South to make an 
additional profit by buying England's cheap goods. A 
dollar saved in purchase is the same as a dollar made 
in sales, hence why not make both available ? The South 
favors the strongest possible system of local self-govern- 
ment, or the anti-centralization features of the proposed 
organization, which confines the federal government 
to within its strictly construed limitations, and above 
all the South could by the qualification feature, practi- 
cally disfranchise the negro (being more anxious to 
utilize his work than his vote), and yet not decrease the 
proportionate representation in Congress or in the elec- 
toral college of that hitherto solid section — solid against 
the negro and discriminating paternal governments. 

Most of the hide-bound Democrats who will object to 



294 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

the term " Phronocrats " or " Conservatives " will be the 
irresponsible foreigners of the lower wards, who would 
be suppressed as they should long ere this have been, 
by the qualification requirement. This class is not 
wanted, except as the individuals thereof make them- 
selves worthy by acquiring the necessary excellence. 
Since in the propositions and creed of the Phronocrats 
or " Conservatives " there appears nothing that aims at 
the exercise of any power whatever by the federal gov- 
ernment, other than such matters as cannot be per- 
formed by the localities, or rather yielding to it such 
only as are essentially national, there exists no plank 
from which to invite the support of those of the com- 
munity who believe in "paternalism in government." 

The American farmers having for years permit- 
ted themselves to be oppressed by discriminating 
traffic and similar legislation calculated to enrich the 
favored manufacturer, have of late, with that enthusi- 
asm and unanimity that usually characterizes the op- 
pressed when once aroused to the enormity of the 
oppression, sought by the organization of the " Farmers' 
Alliance " to obtain restitution for their long and well- 
recognized grievances. They have submitted to too 
much in the past, but in seeking to establish and secure 
relief by asking that a most impracticable system of 
" paternalism " be adopted by the government, their 
position is as untenable as their patience has heretofore 
been inexplicable. Collecting taxes for the purpose of 
making land loans or for building storage warehouses 
is not the province of the government, and if ever 
adopted would result in the end in as much if not more 
harm than good even to the farmers themselves. 

No considerable part of the people can ever be 
brought to an acknowledgment of the fact that the 



PHRONOCRACV 29$ 

general government should ever exercise this function, 
even if void of radical objections, that are absolutely 
insuperable. In the end nothing is gained to the nation 
by paternalism. Those who advocate it disregard the 
fact that a government must get its funds from the 
people by some plan of taxation. If it obtains funds 
from the people in excess of the requirements for its 
own support, and then pays back to the people in pro- 
portion as they contributed (which is the only just basis 
of return), then each man is in the same identical situa- 
tion as if he never had paid the excess ; but if it returns 
to John Jones $10.00 who contributed nothing, and to 
John Smith but $5.00 who contributed $50.00, then it 
has distinguished in favor of Jones and against Smith. 
To have this excess expended by any paternal device is 
but a system of refunding that is most liable to be 
unjust and discriminating ; so that the only safe and 
proper plan is to permit the government to collect only 
what it needs for the most economical administration 
of its legitimate functions, and cause these functions to 
be as few as possible. The Farmers' Alliance will find 
all the relief its members need in the principles of 
Phronocracy, and there are four million farm owners in 
America who should support it to a man, and if Phro- 
nocracy be " paternalism, " say to the millionaire and the 
loafers, " Make the most of it.' 1 

Through Phronocracy and through this alone can the 
American farmer ever accomplish much that will benefit 
his condition, for by this system he can increase his pro- 
portionate representation and decrease his proportionate tax- 
ation. He can then remove the existing governmental 
favoritism that he has participated in creating, and pre- 
vent its re-establishment. His remedy lies in preventing 
favoritism to others not in seeking it for himself. In other 



2g6 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

words he must suppress existing evil, not seek to establish 
greater evil. This is all he can ever do and all he should 
ever do, and the sooner he becomes mindful of this fact 
the better will be the condition of the " oppressed Ameri- 
can farmer." Establish Phronocracy and let the details 
establish themselves as they will surely do. Class legis- 
lation should never be supported, no never, never! 
never ! / Phronocracy is not class legislation for it ap- 
plies to all alike whose conditions are alike. 

It is thought by some that any new term, signifying 
the supposed object or intent of the movement, would 
be useless, and that no better designation could be 
applied than that of " Limited Republicanism," which, 
though offensive to Democrats who cherish affiliation to 
the organization on account of name rather than from 
principle, is yet more logical. America is a republic, 
and not a democracy, and the name of the organization 
whose precepts are best adapted to the perpetuation and 
purification of that republic, it is said, should be some- 
thing in consonance therewith. However, Phronocracy 
expresses the idea and is independent of all others. 

It is a fact of general knowledge that many of the 
ignorant voters who come to America and settle in the 
great Northwest, and who make good agricultural citi- 
zens, vote with the high-protective Republican party — 
diametrically opposed to their interests, — because they 
consider that in a republic they should be Republicans. 
This feature actually weighs to a very appreciable extent 
in those Granger States that so persistently vote for the 
preservation of that discriminating system. 

The name Phronocracy is not suggested for the pur- 
pose of catching votes anywhere, but because it appears 
to be about the only proper expression for a government 
by representatives and electors, both " limited." A 



PHRONOCRACV 297 

" limited republic " would have the same rank among 
popular representative governments that a limited mon- 
archy has among nations recognizing the inherited right 
to rule ; that is, it will be the best of its kind, and the 
republic is undoubtedly the best kind for progressive 
and educated people and nations. 

To one of the would-be supporters of the " Phrono- 
cratic " creed it was said by one of the blatherskites of 
his present political association : " Why, the curtailment 
of suffrage is anti-democratic." To which it was wisely 
replied : " My friend, I am democratic, but I am not too 
d — d democratic. I wish to be no more democratic in 
my political affiliation and association than I am in my 
personal and business association. I would not asso- 
ciate with nor sell my goods to a man who knew nothing 
nor possessed nothing, and I do not see why such a man 
should have it in his power to participate in legislation 
that affects my property, neither do I care to associate 
with a man who has in his possession two hundred 
million dollars in United States gold, for that man can 
indulge in useless extravagance that is not only beyond 
my power but beyond my desire ; he could if he chose 
sail over the sea in a ship of gold. I could not, nor do 
I desire to do so, and the only satisfaction that inures to 
him in being able to construct the hull of his ship of 
gold is, not the fact that gold is better or even as good 
for the purpose as iron, but simply because, in being able 
to do so, he has obtained something that other men 
cannot get, and to that extent is their superior in the 
estimation of the world. I prefer to say to him : ' You 
shall not enjoy this vain glory, for it is of no use to you, 
for by so doing you oppress the reasonable opportunity of 
other men. Rather than permit you to build your ship of 
gold (for glory, not for utility), I will force you to con- 



298 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

tribute a larger amount to the support of the state, which 
protects your property. I will give you a reasonable reward, 
but not an unreasonable one. I will protect your reason- 
able reward by putting in control of it men only of brains 
and property, of neither, perhaps, to the equal of your- 
self, but of enough of each to prove them to be men, and 
not brutes.' Yes, I am thoroughly democratic to the 
extent of curtailing excessive and useless individual accu- 
mulations, which are usually the result more of opportu- 
nity than design, and to the extent of bringing all 
government, first as near to the locality as possible, and 
then as near to the individual as possible, but I want that 
individual to be a man, and not a brute. I want him, in 
other words, to prove his worth before 'he can exercise 
the rights I possess and have acquired only by diligence 
and effort — that is, to come up to a certain standard of 
excellence, below which a man is but a brute ; and out- 
side of these very reasonable limitations, to Hades with 
your democracy — it is a mockery and a farce. Yes, 
Phronocratic is the name to be applied to a proposed 
organization, to become a member of which, if such ever 
should exist, has been my life-long desire, because I have 
always believed in republican institutions as against 
monarchical institutions, but have always feared that the 
concentration of wealth and power on the one hand 
would paralyze its usefulness, and that hoodlumism on 
the other would render abortive its professions. The 
curtailment of the excess on the one hand arid the extir- 
pation of the mockery on the other leaves a conserva- 
tive mean, which must one day be the government 
adopted by the civilized powers of the earth. King's- 
craft is the result of a lingering prejudice of the dark 
ages, and for the countries that are afflicted with it time 
alone can bring relief ; but it must come, and the sooner 



PHRONOCRACY 299 

the better, for that which exists by prejudice or as the 
result of a lingering custom, and cannot be said to be 
supported by greater reason than are other systems 
directed to the same end, must perish, and perish it will. 
Whenever that system of government that maintains that 
i all just power comes from the consent of the gov- 
erned ' can be considered absolutely and unquestionably 
stable and secure (such as is guaranteed by this Phrono- 
cratic, conservative creed), all civilized people will adopt 
it, and the powers of heaven, or of earth, or of hell 
will never prevail against it." 

The supporters of monarchy having been driven from 
their position, that there is a lack of security to prop- 
erty and to civil institutions in all republican systems, 
even though purged by a suffrage qualification, yet claim 
that the necessity for frequent elections is a fruitful 
cause of complaint ; that the choice of representatives 
and of state and federal executives causes a condition of 
commercial insecurity and unrest that must of necessity 
create a temporary suspension of trade, and consequent 
loss to investors in all mercantile enterprises and business 
pursuits ; that the uncertainty of succession and the 
variableness of the policy of the victorious organizations 
must render it impossible to calculate with any degree of 
certainty upon any fixed principle of government as ap- 
plied to the material interests of the country, and hence 
confusion will inevitably result. It is predicted that 
when the protective system is abolished, by reason of 
the change thereby created, that widespread ruin, bank- 
ruptcy, and universal dismay will follow in its wake, 
causing paralysis in business and distress to the people, 
and as in this, so in all conditions of society and trade 
that can be in any sense affected by the popular will. 

This class are respectfully referred to the progress of 



300 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

America and the stability of her institutions, even under 
universal suffrage, which was begun when the population 
was yet comparatively sparse and homogeneous. Now, 
however, when the country is menaced by the vast con- 
gregations of the Eastern World, many of whom possess 
anarchistic tendencies, and seek to divert from the lawful 
custodians all the property they own, and by ruthless 
violence either to distribute or to destroy, this evident 
tendency toward a rapidly approaching storm must be 
checked in its incipiency and strangled in the throes of 
parturition by the " compromise between Democracy and 
Plutocracy," which promises forever to place society not 
only on a more liberal but on a more substantial founda- 
tion than ever has existed under any form of government. 
The question of diminishing the frequency of elections 
has been mooted, as has been absolute ineligibility for 
re-election to office. Both, except as to the judiciary, 
should be abandoned — that is, no change, in America, 
from the existing condition should be made. The Pres- 
ident should continue to serve four years, and should be 
eligible to re-election. Being shorn or rather relieved of 
the great patronage of his office by the election of col- 
lectors and postmasters by the people, he could not 
control the civil service of the country for his own 
personal aggrandizement or for succession to official 
power. Being thus deprived of any opportunity of 
utilizing the force of governmental patronage, a power 
that had been most cogent and demoralizing when used 
for forcing himself or his party on to the people, there 
would remain no possible chance for re-election other 
than by the uninfluenced and untrammelled popular 
will, and if the populace willed, why should he not suc- 
ceed himself as well as be succeeded by another ? It 
might be well, however, to lengthen the term and increase 
the pay of all occupants of the bench. 



PHRONOCRACV 3OI 

The idea of extending the presidential term to six or 
eight years, and the congressional to three or four years, 
is opposed, and with reason, on the ground that the very 
substratum — the foundation-rock of popular government 
— is elections. And why elections ? In order that the 
people may choose agents to perform those duties, curbed 
by constitutional limitations, that cannot be practically 
done by the people themselves. Of course, by these 
agents certain discretionary power must be used, but 
essentially they are supposed to represent the people — that 
is, to do the popular will. If, therefore, the expression 
of the popular will is delayed, to that extent are the 
people unrepresented, and if it is well to seek that plan 
by which the best and closest representation of the peo- 
ple — that most in keeping with their varying wants and 
preferences — can be avoided, then it would perhaps be 
better to abolish elections altogether and lapse into the 
despotic systems of the dark ages. Laws are supposed 
to be made for the people, not the people for the laws ; 
hence to the representatives who make the laws electors 
should have access, and as time passes, and as conditions 
change, the very essence of popular government and the 
operation of the system made possible by it are frustrated 
if the expression of popular opinion is needlessly delayed. 
Purify the electors and the system by which their votes 
are cast and counted, and there will be no harm in rea- 
sonable frequency. A man who is to a certain degree 
educated and who owns property is not a dangerous 
custodian of the franchise, and will seldom if ever use it 
for vicious or revolutionary purposes. If the incumbent 
of an office and the principles he espouses are satisfac- 
tory to a great majority of the people, the question of 
his succession or re-election will cause no excitement, 
and no doubt and no uncertainty as to the continuance 
of any specific policy. It is only when the people are 



302 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

about equally divided on a great question that there is 
any doubt or uncertainty as to the results, and if there is 
a large element opposed, why should the opportunity of 
expressing that opposition be needlessly delayed ? 

One of the greatest possible arguments in favor of 
reasonably frequent elections, in addition to the fact that 
they are the proper concomitants of a Phronocratic 
government, is the ability that is then vouchsafed the 
people to eradicate a bad law from the statute-books and 
remove bad men from office. There is as much necessity, 
ofttimes, of eradicating a bad or of modifying a good law, 
as there is of creating a new enactment. If a law is good 
it will not be changed, unless the majority alter their 
opinions, and, if altered, certainly the government would 
be akin to, if not in fact, a despotism, that would withhold 
the opportunity for expression. It is right and proper, 
in a word it is necessary, that proper safeguards should 
be thrown around precipitate action in legislation, and 
it is for this reason that separate bodies are created. 
Lengthening the term of office will not be necessary, nor 
will political discussion, purged of the demoralizing in- 
fluence of hoodlumism and bribery, be injurious to the 
country or oppressive to trade. As the cumulative and 
qualification principles begin to gain strength there will 
be, of course, manifested from certain capitalistic sources 
some evidences of anxiety, of insecurity, and distrust ; 
but by all, save the one-hundred millionaires and their 
dependencies, and the loafers of the lower wards, in- 
creased confidence will be manifested and greater 
enthusiasm displayed. 

With Phronocracy in force in America the republic is 
complete. It has existed without any necessity for the 
regulation of the extremes for more than a century, be- 
cause the extremes have not been so great. However, as 



PHRONOCRACV 303 

the population becomes dense, and as wealth becomes 
concentrated, the same spirit of progress and opposition 
to oppression that animated our revolutionary sires to 
disavow allegiance to the British crown now prompts 
vigorous energy against concentrated individual wealth 
and benighted individual irresponsibility and ignorance. 
It is not a fundamental, though a considerable, alteration 
in American institutions. It is simply a new, a less 
burdensome, and more reliable system of collecting 
revenue, a curtailment of suffrage, as the only possible 
system of ballot reform and of meeting conditions, 
brought more glaringly forward by the increasing hete- 
rogeneity of the growing population, which are made 
necessary for the guaranty of personal and property 
rights. Rather is it a requirement of the times. When 
universal suffrage was instituted the population of Amer- 
ica was not over four millions, of which number none 
were vicious, and most all possessed property. The 
extremes were not so great ; the contrast between the 
responsible and irresponsible was less. There did not 
exist a few one-hundred millionaires and almost a hun- 
dred million who were not heirs at all ; hence, then, the 
necessity for regulating either extreme was by no means 
urgent. When the few who own the millions can buy up 
and use the millions who own nothing, great has become 
the necessity of rendering both powerless — the former by 
curtailing his wealth to within a reasonable reward, and 
the latter by cutting short his power till he acquired some 
reward — that is, till he possesses some knowledge and 
some property, for otherwise his ability to use power is 
not only dangerous but a mockery. The territorial- 
extension feature is to America an all-important issue 
and should not be ignored. For many years the vast 
domain of Alaska has been owned and has brought good 



304 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

returns for the outlay necessary to procure it, and it is 
the most remote of all possible North American acquisi- 
tions. It can, however, now be reached from San Fran- 
cisco in a very short time, and, after the completion of a 
Western Coast road, from Washington City in less than a 
fortnight. All other habitable portions of North America 
could be reached from Washington in a week. In other 
words, annexation simply means the union of territory 
far less remote from the centre than that which has been 
owned for a third of a century. 

This inter-relationship between and co-dependence of 
countries upon each other become greater as civiliza- 
tion advances and as facilities for transportation multiply. 
Wants are more varied, and where transportation is ade- 
quate there is usually an ability to supply. This condi- 
tion renders necessary closer trade relations, and closer 
trade relations bring closer personal relations ; closer 
personal relations bring closer personal association, 
which tends inevitably to lessen the differences, the de- 
sires, the appetites, the natures, and prejudices of the 
people of the whole world ; they are more uniformly 
dressed and more uniformly fed ; in their exchanges 
they will use more uniform coin and more uniform 
standards of measures and weights, and they will speak 
to each other in a more uniform tongue — all of which is 
attributable to the increasing wants of civilized life and 
to increased facilities for the transportation of commodi- 
ties to supply those wants, and of intercommunication 
necessary to negotiate these interchanges. The tendency 
of all this is that people will be more uniformly governed. 
Uniformity in government can best be obtained by dele- 
gating to a central power such concerns as are essen- 
tially national and reserving to the state those essentially 
local. 



PHRY)N0CRACY 305 

Civilized and progressive society will ere long yield to 
nothing else ; no other system will ever peaceably with- 
stand the varying needs of progressive man. 

National prerogatives solely and alone for national 
concerns specifically denned and closely restricted. It 
is to this grand principle, and to this alone, that is surely 
attributable the union of the North American States, and 
by which, to the pride, glory, and grandeur of every part, 
that quarter of the world can fly one flag, but by the 
abrogation of which dismemberment could only be pre- 
vented, if at all, by the reverberating thunders of the 
American cannon and by the unsheathed sword of 
brother against brother, father against son ; and even 
then the South, the West, the North, the East, would 
seek the Union bonds to sunder. 

When in 1890 efforts were inaugurated to throttle 
federal elections by the interpositions of force, many 
portentous prophecies were made, by the ablest thinkers 
of the time, from all sections, that persistence in that 
policy would ultimately destroy the Union, for the reason 
that it is a total subversion of the spirit of the federal 
Constitution, an abrogation of the principle of local self- 
government, State autonomy, and personal rights — all 
not only near and dear to the heart of every free Amer- 
ican (North or South), but vital to the perpetuation of 
domestic civil liberty. It is no dream, no fancy. What 
signifies delegated national powers if they are to be ruth- 
lessly and violently transcended or enlarged ? The con- 
tinent of North America is very large, it contains many 
physical conditions and many climes, also many people 
with room for many more, and just as certainly as the 
federal power asserts right of interference with these 
local conditions, just that certainly when the offence be- 
comes too great, the Northwest or the Southeast — one 
20 



306 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

just as likely as the other — will object. Men who have 
sacrificed both blood and treasures to suppress one re- 
bellion, bottomed on slavery, will be the most eager in 
their readiness and desire to encourage and abet another 
against federal interference and usurpation of power. 
The tendency, however, to extend federal supervision 
into and over local affairs will soon be entirely stopped. 
When it becomes evident to the people of all sections 
that suffrage is to be curtailed, then there will exist not 
the faintest pretext for such legislation, for the negro of 
the South will be practically disfranchised, and the hood- 
lum of the North would need no military supervision or 
police control. His name would not appear on the books 
of the collector, in the hands of the judges of election at 
the polls, hence the place that he has so long monopolized 
around the voting booths to the disgust and vexation 
of all good citizens, will be void of his presence, and 
elections will be conducted in harmony and peace. 

No section of North America, when the whole can be 
traversed from the Isthmus to the Arctic in ten or twelve 
days, and from ocean to ocean in about one third that 
time, would care for anything save local government and 
federal non-interference. All would cherish pride in 
one nation, one currency, one coin, one weight, one 
measure, one language, and one people, provided the 
federal power would there stop, and permit the inesti- 
mable blessing of local home rule — the only practicable 
government for a great country — to prevail in all its 
excellence, simplicity, and beauty. Otherwise there may 
again be trouble, and grim-visaged war may again present 
his horrid front. Then again might ripe and waving 
grain be trampled beneath the hoof of the war horse ; 
then may these fields of cotton or of corn be furrowed 
by the wheels of advancing artillery ; then may the 



PHRONOCRACY 307 

stately forest trees again be blazed with cannon-balls and 
grapeshot ; then may the blood-soaked earth be lapped 
by thirsty hounds, and then may yelping wolves and 
prowling scavengers of the night make the eyes of heaven 
weep at sights of beastly carnival on the ghastly fields of 
slaughter, where howling and in hideous gluttony they 
might lick from their satiate, gaping jaws quivering 
strands of human flesh — all but a fitting retribution for 
useless fratricidal hate, and for the interference by the 
nation with the proper functions of the State. 

' ' Ere the bat hath flown 
His cloister'd flight ; ere to black Hecate's summons, 
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note." 



CHAPTER XV. 

Recapitulation and general observations — Some individual estates too 
great for computation ; illustration of the uselessness of same ; 
equal to an ordinary salary for 400,000 years — No plan save regu- 
lating the extremes is practicable or just — Irksome duties must 
be performed — Increased compensation not an offset — Differences 
in men must be recognized — Cumulative taxation and suffrage 
qualification the essential features of Phronocracy — The plan not 
complicated — The South, the ruralists of the North, and conser- 
vative city residents sufficient for success — Reasonable reward for 
energy and excellence — Nothing beyond — Concluding para- 
graphs and generalization. 

The discussion of the propositions involved in 
" Phronocracy " based upon " cumulative taxation and 
suffrage qualification," proceeds on these hypotheses, viz : 

First. That all men are or doubtless should be born 
free, but that all positively are not born equal ; that such 
as are or may be born equal become unequal by the vari- 
able degrees in which they exert themselves, in which 
they conserve their energies and make available their 
opportunities. 

Second. That a man is entitled to a reasonable re- 
ward for his labor, his energy, and his opportunity ; that 
any man who possesses greater force (by which is meant 
excellence in any particular) than another man, is en- 
titled to the result of that force. 

Third. That it is not the proper province or prerog- 
ative of the state or of society to attempt to make all 

308 



PHRONOCRACY 309 

men equal, because equality in men is not only in conflict 
with nature, but impracticable in society. Multifarious 
duties must be performed in any civilized state, and it 
requires multifarious men with multifarious adaptabilities 
to perform these multifarious duties and requirements ; 
hence any interposition of the state that seeks to create 
an artificial equality (except such as is, in practice, 
found to be absolutely necessary) is not only unwarranted 
but absolutely injurious. 

Fourth. That beyond a certain reasonable limit the 
accumulation of individual property ceases to be the 
result of individual effort and energy, but is in fact a 
contribution of society (which, however, is absolutely 
unavoidable), and that beyond this reasonable limit, 
individual accumulations are not only useless but harm- 
ful, hence should not be permitted to extend. 

Fortunes, or the aggregations of wealth, beget fortunes, 
or the aggregation of wealth, and to this aggregation, 
for the greatest good to the greatest number, there should 
be some reasonable limit, because man's requirements 
can not possibly increase proportionately with the possible 
increase of his accumulations of wealth. 

Fifth. It is admitted that even the curtailment of in- 
dividual accumulations which are abnormally and use- 
lessly excessive is an interference with individual rights 
and opportunities ; but it is maintained that, since for 
the good of society or for the practical execution of its 
laws, usages, and customs certain restraints or interfer- 
ences with natural rights are necessary, it cannot be 
more equitably or less injuriously applied than to useless 
and excessive individual accumulations. 

Sixth. That no man should participate in government 
who does not possess a certain amount of that which 
governments are established to protect and which alone 



3IO POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

can support government, to wit : property. The simple 
possession of life, which can be sustained without govern- 
ment, does not entitle a living being to the exercise of 
any authority regarding the disposition or regulation of 
that which is the result of inherent force (excellence) or 
the reward of its energies or opportunities. 

Seventh. That it is useless to attempt to make men 
equal by legislation, and that an equal distribution of the 
products of labor would be detrimental to society, en- 
couraging idleness and malingery, and that efforts in that 
direction are not the proper prerogative of the state 
(except to such a limited extent as practice proves to be 
necessary) and should not be encouraged. 

These are a few of the simple but fundamental prin- 
ciples from which is derived the basis for the compromise 
between Democracy, which, by the exigencies of the 
times, is growing socialistic, and Plutocracy, which, by 
the accessions of individual wealth, has begun to paralyze 
the world's affairs. Accretions to population make it 
not only possible but usual for the increment of society 
to add to the value of properties by nature monopolistic 
(of which class there are many) an amount greater than 
the possible increase of the requirements of the individ- 
ual, greater than any reasonable reward for industry or 
opportunity, greater than an adequate compensation for 
cupidity and greed, greater in fact than is possible of ac- 
curate computation or of human comprehension. 

Many men become so wealthy, not wholly by their own 
energies, but by the necessary accessions caused by the 
increase of population and the demands of society, that 
they cannot compute to within ten to a dozen million 
dollars what they are actually worth. In other words, 
they own the equivalent of the labor of so many men 
that they cannot count to within an amount equal to the 



PHRONOCRACY 311 

labor of 10,000 to 15,000 men (a good-sized army) just 
what they do own, and this unknown quantity is perhaps 
not more than five to ten per cent, of their actual wealth. 
It is estimated that if the Lord Almighty had contracted 
with Adam to superintend the Garden of Eden at a sal- 
ary of $40,000 per year (an amount almost equal to 
the salary of the American President), and guaranteed 
him uninterrupted occupancy without the possibility of 
discharge or ejectment for the consumption of fruit that 
was forbidden, at the solicitation of a woman, or for any 
other crime of kindred nature or more glaring atrocity, 
he would not have paid, from the date that he first 
breathed into the inanimate element the breath of life 
and from a rib of it created the consort and tempter, an 
amount equal to that possessed by several of the million- 
aires of America. 

Five thousand years at $40,000 per year would be 
but two hundred million ; and if Adam had been sub- 
jected to that fierce competition and unrelenting strife 
that characterize the struggles of most of his progeny 
for a comfortable terrestrial existence in climates where 
the leaves of figs are not an adequate protection from 
the penetrating blasts of the boreal winds, the pay would 
have been reduced to at least $5,000 per year (an amount 
largely exceeding the average compensation for this class 
of service), in which case it would have required forty 
thousand years for the aggregate outlay to have equalled 
the amounts possessed by several American capitalists ; 
or if the price had been reduced to that which is actually 
considered reasonable for an ordinary American gar- 
dener — that is, one not especially skilled in the most re- 
cent botanical discoveries or capable of delivering the 
most learned discourses on dicotyledonous or deciduous 
plants (in which Adam was not supposed to be especially 



312 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

proficient) — to wit, about $500 per year, then it would 
have required four hundred thousand years for an ex- 
penditure to have been made equal to the fortunes of 
several American capitalists, or about eighty times as 
long as the period of time that is supposed to have elapsed 
since our primeval ancestor, tempted by a woman who 
was beguiled by a snake, proved himself so utterly un- 
worthy of the trust reposed, and was doomed to a life of 
drudgery and toil, in which his innocent and unoffending 
offspring must " root, hog, or die." Is it not absolutely 
ridiculous that any single man (who at best is but little 
better than the worst) should be able to possess wealth 
equal to a very liberal compensation for the labor of a 
fellow-man for four hundred thousand years ? Is it not 
a mockery upon humanity itself that society should 
countenance such a thing (when the life of a man averages 
less than forty years) as a salary to one man for ten 
thousand times as many years as the average man can 
live ? It is claimed that this condition of affairs is 
neither right nor just to society or of any benefit to 
the fortunate (or unfortunate) individuals themselves. 
It is, however, likewise claimed that there is but one 
remedy that is not subject to insuperable objection, and 
that is, to cause a man's contribution to the state, that 
is, to the governmental system that protects and makes 
individual titles to any property practicable, to be so 
adjusted that outgo will equal income when a reasonable 
reward for individual excellence and opportunity has 
been acquired ; and that this contribution shall be so 
rigidly applied to individuals only as to cause no barrier 
to the concentration of capital in corporate enterprises 
for the construction of great works otherwise impossible ; 
and furthermore and finally, that increased security shall 
be given to that curtailed individual property by placing 



PHRONOCRACY 313 

all governmental power into the hands of those only who 
possess property, for 

' ' An habitation giddy and unsure 
Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart." 

It is claimed that no other system is practicable, and 
that none other is just, even if practicable. Individual 
excellence does exist, and conformable to nature as we 
find it, should exist. Any law or system seeking to 
nullify this individual excellence that does not provide 
for its adequate compensation is unjust and a barrier to 
social progress and enterprise. Equal divisions of prop- 
erty are not only unjust — for all are not equally worthy, 
— but utterly abortive of the slightest permanent relief ; 
and if just, and if productive of apparent relief, the 
earth would have to turn backwards or humanity would 
starve. That is to say, if all men were equally excellent 
and all men equally circumstanced, every man who lived 
in the present civilized state would have to be a commu- 
nity unto himself, for under these conditions there would 
be no practical division of labor. The irksome duties 
would be shunned by all, and the desirable duties sought 
by all. It would not do to say that the thing would soon 
become self-regulating, that is, that an overplus of appli- 
cants for the good avocations would drive the required 
number into the bad, for if such should be the case, those 
driven into the bad, that is, into occupations that are 
menial and lowly, would soon cease to be the equals, by 
the very force of the situation itself, of those who re- 
mained in positions of development and growth. Neither 
will it do to say that the menial occupations would com- 
mand increased compensation commensurate with their 
undesirableness, for that opportunity now exists and fails 
of realization. If every man who now scrapes the streets 



3 14 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

should suddenly be made the equal of any professor in 
any college, his usefulness as a street sweeper would as 
likely be diminished as increased, and if not increased, 
in the general panning out of the thing, the compensa- 
tion for his labor would remain practically the same, or 
the strange anomaly would exist of making something 
nothing and nothing something, which is contrary to 
nature. Even if it w r ere admitted that, in the event all 
men were equal, increased compensation for menial occu- 
pation would cause the same to command a sufficient 
number of votaries, the practical fact remains that all 
men are not equal, and no earthly power, much less sup- 
position, will ever make them so. If all men's heads and 
feet were the same size they could all wear with comfort 
the same hat or shoe ; but these sizes differ, radically 
differ, but less by far than their individual characteristics 
or intellectual endowments. By reason of these differ- 
ences in men any law that bears upon all alike will leave 
the previously existing excellence the same as it was 
before. Such efforts at reform are useless. 

And all attempts of kindred kind, 

That emanate from mortal mind, 
Will be ' ' like this insubstantial pageant faded 

And leave not a track behind." 
As well a mermaid with her song, 

Should seek to calm the raging sea, 
When curling tops of crested waves 

Froth and foam in frightful glee, 
And lash the very stars in Heaven 
As if in wild hilarity. 

The feeble, sentimental, and impotent opposition that 
may be urged against the cumulative tax leveller is bot- 
tomed, firstly, upon what is called injustice, and secondly, 
on the assumption that all mankind would thrive as well, 



PHRONOCRACY 315 

if not better, if the whole earth was owned by a few who 
could direct and control its energies and husband its 
opportunities. " Whilst our remedies oft in themselves 
do lie which we ascribe to Heaven," yet, as to the first, 
no man claims that it is possible for any one individual 
to amass as the result alone of his individual energy, 
sagacity, or opportunity, disassociated from and wholly 
unaided by the unavoidable increment of society, a for- 
tune equal to the salary of an ordinary man for four 
hundred thousand years. All such estates are the result 
largely of fortuitous combinations and forces wholly un- 
anticipated, and of course absolutely uncontrolled by the 
fortunate individual ; and if any possessor of a two- 
hundred-million dollar estate should begin life anew 
with all his faculties and powers intact, it is no more 
probable that he would ever again amass such fabulous 
properties, than it is that he would be twice the victim of 
a thunderbolt from heaven ; and inheritors of those fabu- 
lous sums are not entitled, by any excellence of their 
own, even to the very liberal remainder that cumulative 
taxation in no sense disturbs ; and finally, even admit- 
ting that there is exercised a palpable injustice, yet its 
oppressions are not severe, and it certainly accomplishes 
in a more effectual manner than any other system the 
grand desideratum of obtaining the revenues for the 
support of government (for which purpose alone taxation 
should be imposed) from the source which is least bur- 
densome to the people and most certain to the govern- 
ment, effecting thereby a better, though not an unjust 
distribution of property — both objects long sought but 
never found. 

Of those who believe that the world would be better 
if everything was owned by a few, it is simply asked : 
"Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, 



316 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

than that Caesar were dead, to live all freemen ?" In the 
proposition to curtail excessive individual accumulations, 
the existence of which means practical commercial 
slavery for the many, there is no intent of killing Caesar 
nor of depriving him of reasonable reward for his worth, 
but it might be quite as well for Caesar himself if he be 
shorn of some of his power and live as to be possessed 
of it all and die, and so with the monopolists — a fortiori. 
When, by reason of these extraordinary accumulations, 
men of brains but of moderate means can neither profit- 
ably engage in any individual enterprise or safely invest 
in any corporate institution, not only loud will become 
the murmurs, but most cogent the power of conservative 
disquietude and unrest. 

Men hitherto patient, long-suffering, and as calm as 
are the zephyrs that blow beneath the violets, scarce 
nodding their fair heads, will be, when once enraged, as 
fierce as are the boreal blasts that by the tops doth 
snatch the mountain pines and bend them to the vale. 
It will no longer be the childish and impotent whimper- 
ings of the thinly clad, or the blatant ebullitions of 
ignorant and impracticable orators of anarchistic mobs ; 
but the calm, considerate, and thoughtful resolutions of 
brains in the counsel backed by valor in the field ; and 
until then tall towers will ne'er tremble ; but it now be- 
comes obvious that, unless some reasonable compromise 
is effected, the stoutest buttresses may totter if not tumble 
into shapeless ruin ; hence, not a few of the most philo- 
sophical and clear-headed of the monopolistic class have 
already begun to give heed to the distant rumbling of the 
approaching storm, to inquire into the details and de- 
termine as to the praticability of the plans proposed for 

relief and their operating effect. u The people be d d" 

will hereafter be uttered more cautiously, if at all. 



PHRONOCRACY 317 

" Men want but little here below," but some want that 
little "strong" and the most patient and prudent may yet 
conclude that, 

14 If it were done, when 't is done, then 't were well 
It were done quickly : If the assassination 
Could trammel upon the consequence, and catch 
With his surcease, success ; that but this blow 
Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, — 
We 'd jump the life to come." 

It is not probable that monopolists will have " borne 
their faculties so meek " " that their virtues will plead 
like angels, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation 
of their taking-off "; but rather that " this even-handed 
justice will commend the ingredients of their poisoned 
chalice to their own lips." 

Why not then cease this unremitting strife, seek joy 
and mirth, traverse the earth, or "leap astride some lazy- 
pacing cloud and sail upon the bosom of the air " ? 

The argument has been advanced that " cumulative 
taxation " would be abortive of good results for the rea- 
son that opulent individuals would demand for the use 
of their capital or for rent of their estates an increased 
compensation commensurate with their increased contri- 
bution to the government, to which it is answered : The 
opulent individual might demand, but it is questionable 
whether or not he could secure any greater compensation 
for the use of his aggregated wealth than could a less 
opulent individual receive. Would any borrower of 
money pay eight per cent, to a man worth four millions 
when the amount that he desired could be obtained from 
a man worth but one million for a rate not exceeding 
six ? Would any man pay fifty dollars per month for a 



318 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

house that happened to belong to a man who owned a 
hundred houses when a man who owned but ten houses 
would rent him the same or its equivalent for forty 
dollars per month ? If so the renter is a fool and legis- 
lation cannot cure his complaint. Certain fixed and 
well-defined governmental limitations must be recognized 
and adopted, otherwise there will be an endless confusion 
and a chaos of uncertainty and doubt. " The greatest 
individual and personal liberty consistent with social 
order " is the proper maxim for men who are guided by 
sight — that is, by penetration and research — rather than 
by sound — that is, by highly colored but meaningless 
and impracticable epigrams and sophisms. It is also 
urged that " Phronocracy " is too complicated and intri- 
cate for comprehension by the ordinary intellect. If by 
" ordinary " is meant the most depraved class on the earth 
(which class alone would be unable to comprehend the 
pronunciamento that signifies that knowledge and prop- 
erty alone shall determine man's right to participation in 
government), then fortunate is it that the system is too 
recondite and incomprehensible ; for this class is not 
only not desidered, but it is absolutely spurned — that is, 
looked upon with loathing and contempt, for he who is 
so base as to be without the necessary qualification or 
bereft of the required excellence, when but for a meagre 
effort he can obtain both, is too utterly lowly and de- 
praved to be of any consequence or worthy of any re- 
spect. Hence, such men do not belong with the 
" Phronocratic " class and would be ill at ease in their 
association. There will, in fact must, always be a class 
lowly and degenerate, if not absolutely depraved, because 
the natural forces and agencies operative upon the earth 
appear to render it absolutely unavoidable. It is the 
height of folly, however, to permit this class to partici- 



PHRONOCRACY 319 

pate in that of which they have but little genuine com- 
prehension, and to which they are not fitted, neither 
regarding which can they assume any responsibility 
either in knowledge or property. Nothing could pos- 
sibly be more thoroughly supererogatory than further 
effort at a quasi-ratiocinative dissertation on the truth of 
the principle that reason, knowledge, and property should 
rule this land. All else is but a vision conceived in 
rashness, maintained in error, and can result in nothing 
— a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. But the glut 
of wealth must be entombed on some dark sepulchral 
shore, returning to curse the world and enslave its owners, 
as quoth the raven, nevermore, nevermore ! 

Many people, of course, otherwise or by natural incli- 
nations favorable to the principles of the Phronocratic 
organization, will be debarred from lending active 
sympathy and support thereto, because they will think 
the success of the issues impossible. This is always, 
and reasonably, the fate of most reforms. Many think- 
ing men will recognize and admit both the reasonableness 
and justice of the proposition, but will be disposed to 
say : " It is well if it could be brought about, but it 
can't." 

There is always more difficulty in doing than in con- 
ceiving a thing, more in execution than in planning ; but 
that which is in accord with a man's judgment should not 
be shunned because of the difficulties at first apparent, 
provided there exists a reasonable probability of success, 
for by failure nothing is lost, since the existing condition 
is maintained. The monstrous and useless accretions of 
individual wealth are not increased, nor the iniquity or 
folly of universal suffrage aggravated by an honorable 
effort to eradicate both. Reasonable probability of suc- 
cess, or certainly a reasonable groundwork for effort, 



320 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

does exist. The white people of the South en masse are 
opposed to universal suffrage, especially as it applies to 
the negro, in which opinion many of the people of the 
North most heartily concur. If by the disfranchisement 
of the negro , and likewise a proportionate part of the 
degraded population of the North, the South could 
retain its proportionate representation in Congress and 
in the electoral college, there is greater cause for sup- 
port of the system than of a proposition for the exclusion 
of the negro alone, and consequent curtailment of repre- 
sentation. That something has to be done as to the 
negro is manifest, because the North is restive and the 
South determined — the former that he shall count to the 
extent of his numbers, and the latter that he shall not 
control their sections, hence that he shall not count 
to the extent of his numbers. The rural population of 
all the States can see in the proposition a plan by which 
the municipalities would lose more votes in proportion 
to their population than would the country, and hence 
in this there appears an enticing allurement to the latter. 
It is well known that most all the corruption and prosti- 
tution of the ballot occurs in large cities, hence the con- 
servative classes therein will look with favor on the idea. 
Therefore, there appears to be a reasonable proba- 
bility of support from the entire South, the ruralists 
of the North, and the conservative middle classes of all 
municipal cencres. This support, too, is prompted largely 
on the ground of purifying the electoral system, to say 
nothing regarding the inestimable benefit and relief from 
oppression that would result from the removal of pro- 
hibitive and centralizing tariff duties and restrictions 
and the transfer of the burden of governmental support 
from the heads of the poor on to shoulders of the 
rich. From these three sources, coupled with the simi- 



PHRON.OCRACY 32 I 

larity of the interests of the South with the younger 
States of the West, which for years had been hostile 
because of the absence of any issue sufficiently forcible 
and vital to overcome the prejudices of the war, there 
can be developed a very respectable following, which 
will need but to be properly conserved and handled to 
become very cogent and formidable. 

" Nor will its voice as angels' whispers, 

Vanish in the heavenly choir, 
Nor as the music of the billows 

Be lost upon some distant shore ; 
But rather like the lute of Orpheus, 

Which with poets' sinews strung, 
Would soften stones and tame the tigress 

Whene'er its music was begun." 

In reasoning as to the possibility of success, it is most 
important to remember that throughout the entire Union 
the rural population numbers about one half the whole, 
and in 1890 comprised four million farm owners. If a 
majority of this half could be obtained, it is evident that 
half the representatives could be chosen outside of the 
occasional success of those seeking election from munici- 
pal districts in which, where the loafer element is not 
too strong, there will be very reasonable prospects. 
With these elements of support, and the almost universal 
Southern sympathy, it appears quite reasonable that the 
ultimate end can be accomplished as outlined in the 
preceding pages. 

Aside from the arguments, which are direct and un- 
mistakable, wholly void of evasion or dissimulation, 
there is a very decided conviction that the population of 
America has become so great that suffrage must be cur- 
tailed or, to preserve order, peace, property, rights, and 
domestic tranquillity, popular government might have to 
15 



322 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

be abolished and an empire or a despotism be erected 
upon the ruins of a system that respects the inalienable 
rights of men. Prudence must prevail or all is chaos, 
for a mob uncontrolled wreaks naught save wrath and 
crimson blood. 

" Look, as I blow this feather from my face, 
And as the air blows it to me again, 
Obeying with my wind when I do blow 
And yielding to another when he blows, 
Commanded always by the greatest gust, 
Such is the likeness of you common men. 

He that trusts you, 
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares ; 
"Where foxes, geese ; you are no surer, no, 
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, 
Or hailstones in the sun. Your virtue is, 
To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, 
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness, 
Deserves your hate, and your affections are 
A sick man's appetite, who desires most that 
Which would increase his evil. He that depends 
Upon your favors, swims with fins of lead, 
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye ! Trust ye ? 
With every minute you do change a mind ; 
And call him noble, that was now your hate, 
Him vile that was your garland." 

And thus it is and e'er will be, if into the hands of 
wretches is consigned the ship of state. The acknowl- 
edgment of every man's right to live does not carry with 
it every man's inherent right of supervision and control. 
The former is acknowledged and provided for, when all 
individual effort fails, to an extent that will not mar that 
effort ; but the latter can and should only be secured by 
individual excellence. In the strife of individuals to 
better their worldly state each should remember that 
when his efforts are successful he will desire the same 



PHRONOCRACY 323 

uninterrupted possession and peaceful enjoyment of the 
fruits of his labor, his skill, or his opportunity that those 
who have already acquired it are entitled to receive. 

This class should remember, too, that compensation 
for human exertion, whether by muscle or brain, is a 
thing of relative and comparative significance. 

Aside from unearned increment, the only way one in- 
dividual can excel another is to profit by the labor of 
another which results from employment. If in the 
beginning, or if a new start in civilization could be 
begun and all men made equal in worldly possession, it 
is evident that in this civilized state, where wants are 
many and of great variety and diversification, a division 
or classification of industrial occupation would follow ; 
and it is likewise evident that by increased energy, skill, 
and opportunity some men would excel other men in the 
same avocations. This increased excellence would bring 
increased facility, which would command the preference 
in all exchanges and markets either by cheapness or 
betterment. 

This advantage once acquired necessarily drives the 
less fortunate out of business or compels him to sell his 
labor to his more fortunate rival. Rather than pursue 
said avocation on his own account and independently, at 
a loss (which loss is the natural result of the increased 
facility of the more energetic and fortunate), the less for- 
tunate prefers (is not forced), but actually seeks, to sell 
his labor for a definite sum to the man who possesses the 
facilities, or, in other words, the accumulated capital in 
some shape, and hence naturally, by his own volition and 
consent, he becomes an employe and the other an employer. 
The latter, in other words — not by force, but by consent 
— secures the labor of the former at a rate that will yield 
to himself a profit, and hence the more men he can em- 



324 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

ploy on these terms the richer he will become, and all by 
mutual consent. It is certainly clear, therefore, that the 
employer is as much entitled to his profit as the employe 
is to his wages, for both are matters of agreement and 
consent. It is likewise clear, as has been stated, that a 
universal advance in wages would cause a universal ad- 
vance in prices, so that primarily the only possible way 
in which one man can acquire earthly possessions in 
excess of another is first to secure the usufruct of his own 
labor, then that of the labor of as many other men as 
possible ; and to do this he must be possessed primarily 
of increased energy, excellence, or opportunity, and then 
conserve and utilize the results of same for the purpose 
of acquiring increased facility ; and as all men are not 
equal in the possession of these attributes, and not simi- 
larly favored by opportunity or hampered by adversity, 
the acquirement of equal facility by all is impossible, by 
the very force of nature itself, hence some must go up and 
others must go down. Nothing can be done that will not 
wrongfully interfere with individual rights, except to 
curb and prevent unreasonable excesses, just because they 
are unreasonable, and because they are wholly dispropor- 
tionate to individual requirements either as a reward for 
excellence or as compensation for cupidity and greed. 

Thus it is that all schemes and plans of socialism and 
communism fail. Nothing of the kind can ever succeed, 
and simply because they seek to crush the very system 
which upholds the very thing they seek in crushing. 

Permit a man's reward for excellence, energy, and op- 
portunity to be compensated to an extent adequate and 
sufficient, or all daylight had as well be darkness, all 
fertile fields arid plains, all summers winters, all genial 
rays nipping frosts, all good evil, and all order chaos ; 
for, else, naught save death and damned oblivion would 



PHRONOCRACY 325 

be the tomb of all mortal bones, indeed. Seek not by 
legislation or force to make either men or the results of 
their labors equal, for 't would be as useless and as 
ridiculous as 

" To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 
To throw a perfume on the violet, 
To smooth the ice, or add another hue 
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light 
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish." 

Seek not to increase the relative compensation of 
labor either by prohibiting uninterrupted and absolutely 
free importation of labor's products, or by general in- 
creases in its apparent pay, for both must as certainly 
bring a retroactive effect as that motion follows energy — 
both, if not general, are discriminating ; and both, if 
general, increase the price of commodities more than 
they augment the pay of labor. Do not seek to confis- 
cate landed property, not to tax it disproportionately to 
other property, for this is both futile and unjust. Do 
not seek to give every man equal right to natural oppor- 
tunity, for the inherent differences in men's individual 
excellence and force would still leave the relative condi- 
tion the same. Do two things only : First. Discriminate 
against unreasonable and excessive individual fortunes ; 
that is, pass laws that do not bear upon all men alike, yet 
leave just reward for them who are oppressed the most. 

Second. Conserve your own energies ; that is, make 
the profit on your own labor to the greatest extent pos- 
sible, and as you gain in possessions you increase your 
facility. Make available and useful any opportunity, 
and, when so done, do not squander. 

It may be said that this is impossible, and to such as 
so think, be it answered in defiance of disproof — then 
you will never rise. In this manner and in this alone 



326 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

(that is, excellence and opportunity) did some men 
originally get the start of other men, and they are 
entitled to it, to within reason, by any and by all justice 
that the human mind can conceive. It may be said that 
opportunity does not come to all, to which be it an- 
swered : Then that is your misfortune and no mail 's fault. 
Just as, should you accidentally discover a mine of gold, 
it would be your good-fortune and no man's design. All 
men are not stricken down by the lightning, all are not 
born blind or hopelessly maimed and diseased. Some 
are — why ? Ask the winds to answer. Are all men to 
suffer equally the pangs of those unfortunately stricken ? 
Certainly not. Are all men, therefore, to enjoy equally 
the ecstasy of those fortunately blessed ? Certainly not. 

Hence necessarily, and by the very laws of nature ever 
immutable, is forced upon society that condition which 
has existed since the very earliest dawn, and which will 
exist till the latest crack of doom — to wit : social grada- 
tions and inequality, without which all would be confu- 
sion, if, indeed, the earth and its accessories being as 
and what they are, society could exist at all. 

On the very same principle, however, that society 
steps in and provides hospitals, almshouses, asylums, 
and the like for those who are abnormally poor and des- 
titute and helpless (which many will always be by the 
natural force of natural occurrences), to an extent that will 
not cause their abuse, so likewise it is perfectly compe- 
tent and proper for society to step in and provide 
against those who are abnormally and uselessly rich 
(which some will be by the natural force of natural things), 
to an extent that will not interfere with their natural 
right to reasonable reward. The wants and needs of 
any man, it matters not in what sphere he may desire to 
exist, cannot possibly exceed the income of four or five 



PHRONOCRACY 327 

million dollars, and if they do he had better be compelled 
to curtail his personal expenditures and contribute more 
to the state. It is said that a rich man pays to society 
his increased tribute in the increased cost of his mainte- 
nance. Scarcely any man worth over five millions can 
possibly contribute proportionately in this manner, even 
if this could be called a contribution, which, of course, 
it cannot be, for rich men usually expect the persons 
from whom they buy to give value for their expenditures, 
which therefore are available to society only to the 
extent of a profit, just as are the purchases of any other 
man. A two-hundred millionaire will not pay any more 
for an article than a one-hundred millionaire, and the 
latter no more than a five-hundred millionaire, but when 
subjected to the cumulative rate, such contributions in 
exact proportion to ability are forced. No one can deny 
that abnormally large estates do in many cases augment 
more rapidly by accretion and gain than they decrease 
by division among heirs, and even if they do not so 
increase, the simple principle of placing the burthen of 
society and government upon those who can best afford 
to bear it is not only not unjust to that class, but is really 
a debt they can well afford to assume, especially if they 
are still permitted to enjoy adequate, sufficient, yes, 
redundant, personal possessions. 

No one can deny that assessments would be more 
thorough and complete under the cumulative system, in 
which means and laws would be provided for increased 
scrutiny, and where both the local and the federal asses- 
sor passed upon the estate, it would be more correctly 
assessed than where the local official only, as under the 
present system, had entire supervision and control. 
But admitting that it would not be more thorough or, 
more inconceivable yet, that it would be less thorough 



328 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

than the present system, even then the increasing cumu- 
lative rate would necessarily compensate for any loss in 
the aggregate. 

The facts are, as a matter of course, that it would be 
much more complete than the present system, and whilst 
not perfect would be nearly so. All the trees and under- 
growth in a dense forest cannot be easily enumerated, 
but accuracy can be closely approached if the proper 
effort is put forth, and so with the proper effort under 
the cumulative system would assessments be far more 
complete and satisfactory than they have ever been 
before. 

Those who would be shorn of their colossal accumula- 
tions would become reconciled to the situation much 
more readily than would be at first supposed, and, being 
guaranteed increased security, many would really enjoy 
the relief from the anxiety and care of such vast and 
burthensome estates, and would begin to realize that 
there are other things to live for save money ; other 
avenues for the exercise of intellect than through the 
stock exchanges ; other means of deriving pleasure than 
by cornering the market and forcing some competitor to 
the wall to die perhaps in agony and sorrow ; in a word, 
that greater absolute contentment could be vouchsafed 
from moderation than from excess. 

Many men are now obliged to deprive themselves of 
much pleasure and relaxation, though their fortunes are 
ample to warrant both, simply because of the absolute 
necessity of devoting their time, their thoughts, and 
their energy, by night at times as often as by day, to the 
protection and conservation of their properties, or, 
rather, to be slaves to the master mammon — a beastly 
tyrant — a fiend than which there is none more remorse- 
less or cruel. Phronocracy counsels moderation ; it 



PHRONOCRACY 329 

appeals to reason and to understanding ; it will elevate 
human hope and temper human passion ; it will cause 
every thinking man to cherish one scale of prudent re- 
flection to poise another of ruinous ambition ; and, above 
all, it will check the interference of government with the 
proper functions of the people, leaving localities and 
states to control their own domestic affairs, and the 
individual to pursue the enterprises of the earth untram- 
melled by any federal interference, and as the seven bright 
pointers of the Major Bear blaze forth the brightest of 
myriads shining there, and while to each other they are 
motionless and fixed, yet, as in annual revolution they do 
sweep the vaulted dome of heaven, first to the east, then 
south, then west, though aiming always to the north, so 
the Phronocratic creed, with equal certainty and truth, 
will lead all persons who will it proclaim to the only 
polar star of rest that mortal man can ever gain. 

Strive on, thou virtuous and ever blessed reformer ; 
strive, for in thy efforts lie weary mortals' proudest 
hopes ; but when all is done nothing is done save to 
check extremes in life, temper the severity and moderate 
the effect of nature's operating forces, the result of 
which, and nothing more nor less, are the things we see 
around us ; and neither the wealth of high resolves, the 
martyrdom of generous sacrifices, the theories of social 
reformers, the deductions of eminent casuists, nor the 
lapse of time, the progress of science, the penetration of 
thought, the mutations of earth and fortune, nor the ap- 
peals of man to man — of misery to wealth — nor prayers 
to all the gods at once, will ever make things equal. 
Strive for this and you but seek the shadow of fancy, 
and will lose the substance of practicality, stifle energy, 
curb or crush enterprise, thwart the motives of life, and 
war with nature itself— a foe that can't be conquered. 



330 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

Remember, as well in the storms of adversity as in the 
height of glory, to be at all times prudent, temperate, and 
reliable, for 

" In the reproof of chance 
Lies the true proof of man ; the sea being smooth, 
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 
Upon her patient breast, making their way 
With those of nobler bulk ? 
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage 
The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold 
The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cuts, 
Bounding between the two moist elements 
Like Perseus' horse : where 's then the saucy boat, 
Whose weak untimbered sides but even now 
Co-rivalled greatness ? either to harbor fled 
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so 
Doth valor's show and valor's worth divide 
In storms of fortune ! " 

Let all men to themselves and the world be true, 
remembering that 

" Corruption wins not more than honesty : 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues, be thou just and fear not, 
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's, then if thou fallest, O Cromwell ! 
Thou fallest a blessed Martyr." 



PHRONOCRATIC PRECEPTS. 

APHORISMS AND EPIGRAMS. 

ist. Want is a necessary result of the operating agen- 
cies of nature. 

2d. Want prompts acquisitiveness, and acquisitiveness 
prompts accumulation. 

3d. Men have a natural right to possess and enjoy 
property. 

4th. The progress of civilization and the occupancy 
by mankind of lands and climes differing from those in 
which the race most likely had its origin, causes both the 
multiplication and diversification of wants. 

5th. Trade and exchange are a necessary result of 
diversified wants, and from these result profits and 
losses ; hence the rich and the poor. 

6th. Excessive individual accumulation is useless to 
the possessor and hurtful to the community. 

7th. Man has a right to "unearned increment" the 
same as to property in the abstract. 

8th. A nation gains nothing by interfering with the 
natural laws of trade and exchange. 

9th. Protection in any form must impoverish as much 
as it enriches — something cannot come of nothing. 

10th. To be able to " protect " the classes a govern- 
ment must tax the masses ; nothing can be builded up 
without tearing something down. 

nth. No tax should be levied save for revenue, and 

mi 



332 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

that should be derived from a source least burdensome 
to the people and most certain to the government. 

1 2th. Governments should operate no enterprise and 
do nothing whatsoever that can possibly be done by 
individuals. 

13th. The operation of enterprises by government is 
simply giving to agents the proper functions of the 
principals. 

14th. Individual excellence should be fully recognized 
and adequately recompensed. 

15th. The world should belong in usufruct to the peo- 
ple, but the vast majority would fritter away their allot- 
ments either by improvidence or misfortune — neither the 
fault of any man or men. 

1 6th. No law applicable to all men alike will alter the 
relative condition or estate of men. 

17th. Schemes for relief must, to avail anything, 
" oppress the favored and favor the oppressed." 

1 8th. Many enterprises must always be " monopolistic 
in their nature." 

19th. Enterprises by nature monopolistic should be, to 
the greatest extent possible, popularly owned. 

20th. Taxes should be borne rather in the ratio of 
ability than of property. 

2 1 st. It is probable that a hundred men own one dollar 
where one man owns one hundred dollars. 

22d. Suffrage should only be exercised by men pos- 
sessing a certain degree of excellence and capacity. 

23d. Governments are instituted for and are supported 
by property, hence those possessing nothing should not 
participate in government. 

24th. Women should neither vote nor fight. 

25th. Genuine ballot reform can only be secured by 
its curtailment. 



PHRONOCRACY 333 

26th. The curtailment of the ballot is the only practi- 
cable solution of the race question in the South. 

27th. Immigration of self-sustaining foreigners is bene- 
ficial to the country. 

28th. Money simply facilitates trade and cannot create 
or enlarge it. Cheapening the standard benefits nobody. 

29th. There should be but one standard of money, 
weight, and measure. 

30th. As soon as possible all land from the Isthmus to 
the Arctic should be under one flag. 

31st. A nation to be truly independent should own 
land in all climes. 

32d. All of North America could be governed, if 
suffrage was curtailed, .better than any part with suffrage 
universal. 

33d. Because a despotism is the worst it does not 
follow that excess of liberty is the best form of govern- 
ment. 

34th. The United States Government is a Republic, 
not a Democracy, and should be a " Limited Republic," 
or a Phronocracy. 

35th. Excessive individual suffrage is as useless and 
unwise as excessive individual property ; hence, both 
should be curtailed, and, if not both, then neither. 

36th. All schemes of governmental paternalism are 
foolish, abortive, and wrong. 

37th. All government should be as near the individual 
as possible — that is, Home Rule should be universal. 

38th. There should be greater opportunity for indi- 
vidual participation in business and less in government. 

39th. Special privileges should be made general and 
general restraints special. 

40th. Phronocracy signifies the rule of Prudence, Con- 
servatism, and Understanding. There are about four 



334 POLITICS AND PROPERTY 

million farm owners and two million moderately circum- 
stanced city residents now in America. To these two 
classes especially would it be very beneficial, and their 
strength, united, would win. Each year there will be 
more millionaires and more paupers, hence fewer of the 
conservative middle classes. 

4 1 st. They are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as 
they that starve with nothing : It is no mean happiness, 
therefore, to be seated in the mean ; superfluity comes sooner 
by white hairs, but competency lives longer" — Shakespere. 



THE END. 




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